Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
Lines 21-24
The mother smiled to know her child
Was in the sacred place,
But that smile was the last smile
To come upon her face.
- The child is in "the sacred place": the church.
- This stanza has some foreshadowing. Things seem hunky-dory now, but we learn that the mother's comfort is her final joy in life. Something bad is coming: the mother never smiles again.