Stanza 2 Summary

Lines 11-12

How is it, Shadows! that I knew ye not?
  How came ye muffled in so hush a mask?

• Now the speaker is addressing the figures directly, calling them "Shadows" and exclaiming in order to get their attention.
• That exclamation is one type of caesura, or indication to the reader of a pause mid-line.
• But are the figures actually there, or just in his mind? We'll come back to that.
• For now, just know that addressing something that isn't actually present in the poem is called apostrophe.
• He wonders: just how did they manage to sneak up on him without him noticing? They didn't make a sound.
• He sounds a little disturbed by the whole thing, wouldn't you say?
• Or maybe he's just a bit startled. We get it. Seeing ghostly Grecians would do that to anyone, probably.

Lines 13-16

Was it a silent deep-disguisèd plot
  To steal away, and leave without a task
  My idle days? Ripe was the drowsy hour;
  The blissful cloud of summer-indolence

• Ah, now we see why he seems so disturbed.
• The figures interrupted a relaxing, lazy morning.
• He wonders if the figures were doing it on purpose. He thinks they may have intended to interrupt his "idle" days," which he really enjoys.
• Notice the word play in these lines? He calls the summer days "ripe," like a piece of juicy fruit.
• That's a delicious-sounding metaphor.
• Clearly, the speaker enjoys having nothing to do and no place to be. Hey, who doesn't?
• The figures don't, apparently. They interrupted his relaxation time, and he wants to know why.

Line 17-18

Benumb'd my eyes; my pulse grew less and less;
  Pain had no sting, and pleasure's wreath no flower:

• This summer morning was so relaxing, in fact, that it slowed the speaker's heart and made his eyes feel numb.
• It sounds like he's ready for a nap.
• There was nothing causing him pain… but there was nothing exciting happening, either.
• Nothing was happening to get that heart a-beating.
• It's not that he wasn't experiencing any pleasure; it's just that the pleasure was a dull one.
• If pleasure is a wreath, he says (using another metaphor), then his was a wreath with no flowers. His idleness has left him a little numb.
• But apparently he prefers it that way.

Lines 19-20

  O, why did ye not melt, and leave my sense
Unhaunted quite of all but—nothingness?

• He was enjoying the "nothingness" of his dull days, but the figures got him all riled up.
• Seeing a ghost (or three) will do that to ya.
• Calling his idleness "nothingness" is pretty telling. It isn't that the speaker is feeling good. It's that he is feeling nothing at all.
• But he seems to enjoy it, which is why he's so annoyed. He can't feel the "nothingness" when they are around.
• Because they make him feel… well, things.
• And this is what haunts him, even after the figures leave.