Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
Lines 59-63
O pure of heart! thou need'st not ask of me
What this strong music in the soul may be!
What, and wherein it doth exist,
This light, this glory, this fair luminous mist,
This beautiful and beauty-making power.
- In this new stanza, our speaker continues to address "Lady." This time, he figuratively describes her as having a pure heart. He must think pretty highly of her, then.
- Once he's done that, he tells her that she doesn't have to ask him anything more about this awesome soul-music he's been describing.
- Nor does she have to ask him about the beautiful light show that the soul is capable of putting on.
Lines 64-72
Joy, virtuous Lady! Joy that ne'er was given,
Save to the pure, and in their purest hour,
Life, and life's effluence, cloud at once and shower,
Joy, Lady! is the spirit and the power,
Which wedding Nature to us gives in dower,
A new Earth and new Heaven,
Undreamt of by the sensual and the proud—
Joy is the sweet voice, Joy the luminous cloud—
We in ourselves rejoice!
- Now our speaker calls this lady "virtuous." It sounds like somebody's got a crush…
- He goes on to let her know the reason behind all the pretty music and light that the soul can release into the world: joy.
- It's not just the kind of joy you get when you get an A in Calculus, though. This kind of joy is the purest kind, felt by pure people, living their purest lives, experiencing their purest moments. We're talking 100 percent undiluted joy here.
- The speaker describes this kind of pure life and the things that flow out of it ("life's effluence") via a metaphor of a cloud (that would be life) and rain (the things that flow out of life) (66).
- This kind of joy allows us to see the world ("Nature") in a rewarding way. It brings us closer to the world ("wedding Nature to us") for starters (68). And, when that happens, we get a metaphorical wedding gift ("dower," or dowry).
- It's a new set of steak knives.
- Nah—it's even better than that. When we experience this kind of pure joy, we're treated to a new sense of both Earth and Heaven.
- That viewpoint is way better than any sensual or proud person might have.
- Joy is what brings us the light and the music, allowing us to appreciate ourselves and find joy in just… being us.
- To put it simply: joy's pretty great, if you didn't know. That must be why our speaker capitalizes it in this stanza.
Lines 73-75
And thence flows all that charms or ear or sight,
All melodies the echoes of that voice,
All colours a suffusion from that light.
- In fact, everything that charms our hearing or our vision flows from this sense of joy.
- We owe every melody we hear and color we see to its amazing powers.
- Thanks, joy—you're pretty awesome.