Symbol Analysis
We've been taught that heaven is above us—but just how far up there is it exactly? This poem has some ideas, in fact. It aims to situate heaven as a physical setting (check out "Setting" for more). At the same time, it also wants to remind us just how far removed the damsel is from her loved one back on Earth.
For example, we're told that the damozel is "So high, that looking downward thence/ She scarce could see the sun" (29-30). It's as though the woman is looking down on the entire solar system. Even day and night pass beneath her, "With flame and darkness ridge/ The void, as low as where this earth/ Spins like a fretful midge" (34-36). From her vantage point, the Earth is nothing but a tiny bug, and "the curl'd moon/ Was like a little feather/ Fluttering far down the gulf" (55-57).
Taken together, then, these astronomical images are meant to communicate a sense of the immense distance that separates the damsel from her love. In fact, this may be a record-holder for the all-time longest distance relationship.