Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
Lines 7-9
O powerful western fallen star!
O shades of night—O moody, tearful night!
O great star disappear'd—O the black murk that hides the star!
- Well, it wouldn't be a nineteenth-century elegy without some "O's" and woe. Lines 7-9 are a kind of catalog of interjections ("O!") and super-emotional, figurative language: "O moody tearful night!"
- So the speaker at this point is being real with us, so to speak. He's letting it all hang out and he's not afraid of weeping. This is kind of in line with your typical elegy, too. Usually we get all the woe and gloom in the first few stanzas and then by the end we usually have some sort of consolation to get us home without too many tears. Check out this famous elegy by W. H. Auden that does the same sort of thing.
- Back to the O's: We see that western star again in line 7, but here it's "powerful" which gives us a sense of its symbolism. The speaker isn't just talking about stars, in other words. But again we're not sure what it symbolizes just yet. Since it's "powerful" and "fallen" we might assume that it's being used to symbolize someone, or something, who also fits those descriptions.
- Line 8 gives us more imagery, only this time it's much darker and more in line with death and mourning: "shades of night" and "moody, tearful night."
- Since the speaker includes the idea of the night being "moody," we likewise get a feeling for the speaker's mood as well. At first he sounded put-together, checking out those lilacs, but here we see a different side that's more emotional and distraught.
- And since it's an elegy and elegies deal with death, we can understand all of the mood swings. In times of mourning, things are rarely room temperature and under control. Usually folks are feeling all over the place after someone dies, crying one minute and smiling the next. Therefore there are "shades" of grief, just like there are "shades of night" in line 8.
- By line 9 we definitely know that fallen western star has "disappear'd," and so it seems logical to make the connection to the "him" the speaker was referring to earlier. We get the sense that perhaps this man was also a great star in his own way.
- The second half of line 9 tells us the circumstances surrounding this "fallen star" are complicated, since the speaker includes the metaphor of "black murk that hides the star." This guy didn't just die of natural causes. The circumstances are much "murkier" and pervasive since they hide such a bright star.
Lines 10-11
O cruel hands that hold me powerless—O helpless soul of me!
O harsh surrounding cloud that will not free my soul.
- By line 10, the speaker's focus is more inward than before. The passing of that "fallen star" is making him feel "powerless" and "helpless." So the consequences of this man's death extend far beyond the person himself, as we see the speaker suffering in such a helpless and powerless way.
- And again we get the sense that things are complicated here in that metaphor of a "harsh surrounding cloud." This isn't the sort of death one can easily rationalize or forget about. Its consequences "surround" the speaker, which again gets us thinking that the dead guy is no ordinary Joe.
- Since the cloud cannot "free" the speaker's soul, we also get the feeling that the world at large must also part of the speaker's suffering. The speaker's turmoil is just as much outside as it is inside of him. Therefore he's "powerless" and unable to be freed from it.