Stanza 21 Summary

Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.

Lines 121-126

"Herself shall bring us, hand in hand,
  To Him round whom all souls
Kneel, the clear-ranged unnumber'd heads
  Bow'd with their aureoles:
And angels meeting us shall sing
  To their citherns and citoles."

  • The damsel continues to fantasize about taking her love to meet Mary.
  • In her vision, Mary will take the lovers by the hands and lead them to God, who will Himself be surrounded by too many kneeling souls to count ("unnumber'd").
  • These souls will be sporting haloes ("aureoles") and the angels there will be rocking out on their "citherns and citoles"—old-timey stringed instruments (126).
  • It sounds like quite a scene.