Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
Lines 139-144
(I saw her smile.) But soon their path
Was vague in distant spheres:
And then she cast her arms along
The golden barriers,
And laid her face between her hands,
And wept. (I heard her tears.)
- Hmm! We have a first-person speaker emerging in this last stanza. (For the scoop on this, be sure to check out "Speaker.")
- Since this first-person comment is written in a parenthetical, it's a sign that we're hearing from the damsel's beloved—who speaks in the first person (and in parentheses) elsewhere in the poem. Before, he was fantasizing about his lover up in heaven, but here he says that he can actually see the damsel smiling.
- Right after this comment, though, our regular speaker enters the picture. (It's like dueling speakers in this stanza.)
- That speaker sees that the angels—who approached the damsel with their light in the last stanza—are moving away from her ("their path/ Was vague in distant spheres").
- When she sees this, we're told that the woman leans down on the balcony bars, puts her face in her hands, and cries.
- What—you don't believe this speaker? The lover confirms this detail, reminding us with his parenthetical comment that he "heard her tears" (144). Boom—there's proof for you.
- So, yeah, this is not exactly a happy ending for our blessed damozel. We're left just hoping that she and her lover can be together in heaven together—some day.