Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
Lines 43-48
And still she bow'd herself and stoop'd
Out of the circling charm;
Until her bosom must have made
The bar she lean'd on warm,
And the lilies lay as if asleep
Along her bended arm.
- Surrounded by (but separate from) the happy, reunited souls of the lovers, the young woman leans down even farther over the railing of heaven. She's really looking hard down at the Earth. It's as if she's left something—or someone—behind.
- She's leaning so far over the railing that she's making it warm with the heat of her body. We hope she doesn't fall.
- The woman is so alone up in heaven that even her flowers seem to be sleeping. This personification adds to the dull, depressed nature of the damsel's description—darn it all.