Summary
A man is sleeping and awakens briefly—or, a mechanical sound rouses him enough that his soul leaves his body in the early morning light. The soul perceives that angels are outside his window. The soul sees that the angels are clothed in everyday garments, perhaps drawn from his own household's laundry pile. The angels are not just figments but are understood to "really exist" in the air outside. They emanate goodness and happiness, and though the soul knows that the angels cannot be approached, they nevertheless exude a calm, soothing feeling.
The angels' movements switch to a more energetic, and perhaps intimidating, mode. They can be anywhere at once; they resemble liquid. Yet they continue to exist and act without making news, only further demonstrating just how unlike earthly beings they are. The soul appears to understand that, soon, it will have to return to earthly life, which presents a series of challenges that are so unlike the smooth celestial movements of the angels. But the soul appears also to understand that earthly tasks can take on some of the serenity of heaven. It tells itself that even the washing of clothes can be a beautiful, meaningful enterprise.
The day begins to dawn fully, and the soul must, with some grumpiness, return to the sleeping man, although it has also been energized by what it's seen. The soul and man fuse. The man, getting out of bed, says to himself in a tone of charity that all on earth should have access to clean clothing, criminals and do-gooders alike, and even nuns in their dark clothes should be imbued with some measure of the celestial lightness the angels had, dancing in the sky.
Analysis
The line between the world of dreams and the world of reality is, from the start of the poem, a blurry one. First, the poet appears to take for granted that the soul can move into and out of the body. And second, the presence of angels is never disputed. Indeed, everything here is "real," including the mechanics of the celestial world ("pulleys") and the potential for the soul to drift over toward a window to see the angels. It's notable, too, that the angels are not really described physically apart from their clothing. They appear to be as much energy fields as they are beings in the normal sense of the world, yet the clothes they wear sit upon them somehow. Words like "awash" indicate the liquid nature of the angels—the fact that they can seem to flow from one place to another.
The home life of the sleeping man/soul begins to enter into the dream state. This is a common feature of dreams, at least in many psychological accounts: that they take on the characteristics of the world around the slumbering being, either activating possible meanings in everyday objects or simply using them to create new stories. Here, in the beginning, the man's laundry seems accidental—perhaps he fell asleep understanding that there was laundry to be done. But soon the clothing becomes fused to the power of the angels, their benign and calming presence. It is as though doing laundry can be a way to clean not just garments, but the self—giving back to the world through a small task of purification. Although the soul doesn't know why the angels are so pleasant, it apparently understands, intuitively, that they are a source for good, even as their movements are stranger than anything one might encounter on earth.
Here, the angels continue to show that they are not of this world, although they wear this world's garments. Angels in the Western tradition are messengers, agents of communication between the human and the divine. In many cultures, too, poetry was understood to be a method of communication between things of this world and of the world beyond; in this sense it resembles prayer, magic, and incantation. It is no coincidence, then, that the poet, in the course of writing the poem, seems to dwell on the power the angels have for sending messages from the heavenly realms. It's notable, too, that the angels' energies could be overwhelming—literally terrifying—but that the soul understands they are not to be used for ill purposes. Despite what could appear to be a scene of dangerous, swirling currents in the air, the soul comprehends that the angels are agents for peace.
Here, the time-setting of the poem complicates itself in an interesting way. The speaker speaks about what the soul will remember––as though, in the recounting of the story, the speaker has had the opportunity to review what the soul knew and when it knew it, before re-telling the event to the reader of the poem. The "rosy hands in the rising steam" are a powerful image of cleaning—showing how the hot water of the purifying process chaps the hands but also makes them beautiful, like flowers. And the jubilation of this process is reflected also in the "clear dances" that the soul seeks when doing this daily task. Most people do not find themselves wanting to dance when they do laundry, but such is the power the angels present; they can render even the most boring of chores an opportunity for celebration.
As the day fully dawns, the soul and man are once again a single entity, and the man breaks into a kind of song, or prayer—a setting of intentions not just for the day ahead, but for a kind of spiritual cleansing that will be applicable for years hence. It's notable that the man himself launches into this kind of poetry within the poem—that he is moved by a desire to sing just as the speaker of the poem, in the frame describing the event, has been moved to convey it to the reader. The man's poetry is even more lofty than the overall poem of Wilbur's, using elevated language like the "ruddy gallows" and the "lovers" going "fresh and sweet" to their assignations. The final image, of the nuns, seems to combine the spiritual—they are, after all, servants of the church—with the mundane. For nuns are Jesus's workers in this world, and their pointedly plain clothing, here crisply laundered, is meant to convey a seriousness of purpose, a "difficult balance" between earth and heaven.
