Summary
A celestial figure talks to the speaker. It tells her that she needs to let go of her dim perspective on the changing of the seasons. It goes on to say that she should understand that beautiful things are not tragic because they end, but rather are beautiful precisely because of their fleetingness. The day ends with the suggestion that the speaker has shifted her point of view on the matter.
Analysis
In the poem's final third, the speaker is visited by a divine figure after a dramatic overture and hears a contrasting point of view about the elapse of summer. The speaker says that as "wide earth echoing rung" some "little glittering spirits sung, / Or seemed to sing, to" her. At this point, this celestial being speaks, in direct quotations, to her: "'O mortal! mortal! let them die; / Let time and tears destroy, / That we may overflow the sky / With universal joy!" In rather opaque language, the celestial being is pushing back on the speaker's point of view. In telling her to "let them die," he means that she needs to let go of her fixation on the passing of the seasons and experience "universal joy." It elaborates on this idea in the stanza that follows, as it says that grief should not "distract the sufferer's breast / and night obscure his way," since the passing of time results in "endless rest" and "everlasting day," referencing heaven. It means that because these conclusions are unavoidable, it is not worth dreading them. These stanzas function as the being's opening arguments, as the lines that follow offer a more detailed rebuttal to the speaker's gloomy outlook.
In the sixteenth stanza, the celestial figure characterizes the speaker's viewpoint on time: "'To thee the world is like a tomb, / A desert’s naked shore." The figure means that by constantly leaping forward to the end of things, she views everything as barren and empty. This figure then adds that it, along with other higher powers, sees the world in a different light: "To us, in unimagined bloom, / It brightens more and more!" This means that, to them, the future seems to perpetually hold new potential for surprise and beauty, in perpetual, "unimagined," bloom. It is a direct rejoinder to the speaker's downtrodden comments. In the penultimate stanza, this being offers a cryptic closing remark on the nature of conclusions: "'And, could we lift the veil, and give / One brief glimpse to thine eye, / Thou wouldst rejoice for those that live, / BECAUSE they live to die.'" What the being seems to be suggesting here is that the speaker needs to appreciate moments like the one before her, precisely because they end. The capitalization of the word "because" right before the phrase "they live to die" reinforces this impression. With the phrase "could we lift the veil," the being implies that if the speaker could adopt a different, more open, point of view regarding time, she would be better able to understand this idea.
The poem's three voices offer three contrasting modes. There is the overarching narration, which describes the sunny visage of the setting, introduces the divine figure, and closes the poem. There is the speaker's internal voice, which provides insight into her downtrodden state of mind. Finally, there is the divine figure's voice, which provides a wider perspective on the nature of time and the seasons. The poem ends, fittingly, with the closing of its frame: "The music ceased; the noonday dream, / Like dream of night, withdrew." The summer day has reached its conclusion, as has her strange, possibly imagined, reverie. However, the speaker notes in the last two lines of the poem, "Fancy, still, will sometimes deem / Her fond creation true." While the concept of "fancy" has not been elaborated upon in other parts of the poem, the speaker appears to be saying that the celestial being has, however slightly, changed her point of view, as she now seems to characterize this scene with a degree of fondness. As a whole, the poem is about learning to appreciate beautiful moments because they are fleeting and temporary.
