"a man in scarlet lets /down a rope as a spider spins a thread"
The steeple-jack may have a quotidian name but he is a strange figure. His clothing and the way he moves sinuously on the spire suggests the devil, as does the "danger" sign he posts and the fact that he seems fanciful, as if "part of a novel." His gilding of the star has an ambiguous resonance; the star "stands for hope," but to gild something is often to cover up with a thin, merely decorative layer of shiny gold. Perhaps this symbol of hope might lead the town's residents to believe false things and to confuse symbol with substance. Moore's description of him, when combined with that of the church, is what makes this poem about a putatively peaceful New England seaside town seem much more disconcerting.
"and one in red / and white says // Danger"
This sign may simply refer to the work the steeple-jack is doing on the star, but it has much more to suggest when reading the rest of the lines about the church. The building has "whitewash" columns, suggesting its falsity. The star, similarly, is gilded instead of being real gold. It is a fit place for the derelicts of society or those who want to willingly leave society. Religion can be a dangerous thing when it gives people a false sense of the world; there is duplicity here, disguise and danger.
"while he is gilding the solid- / pointed star, which on a steeple / stands for hope"
To gild something means to cover it with a layer of gold and that the substance below is cheap, less authentic. The fact that the church's steeple star is gilded is slightly disconcerting, especially when added to the "four fluted / columns, each a single piece of stone, made / modester by whitewash" and the fact that the steeple-jack himself seems vaguely fantastical or sinister. Moore seems to want us to be aware what art can accomplish, both in a positive and a negative sense. Her poem is lovely and evocative, but she knows that the words she chooses can allude to something deeper or stranger; we are cautioned to be careful when we read or interpret the "signs" of all sorts that surround us.
