Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
Lines 13-14
If, when hearing that I have been stilled at last, they stand at the door,
Watching the full-starred heavens that winter sees,
- Another stanza opening with that hypothetical "if" construction!
- Now the speaker imagines that his friends and neighbors will hear about his death while standing in an open doorway, looking up at the night sky. (Except that it's a "winter" sky – they probably shouldn't be standing with the door open.)
Lines 15-16
Will this thought rise on those who will meet my face no more,
"He was one who had an eye for such mysteries"?
- The speaker wonders whether the night sky will inspire his friends to remember him as someone who loved stargazing.
- This stanza, like stanzas 1 and 5, is constructed as a question.