The speaker is in tears at night, looking at her beloved's image, yet earlier today she saw him smiling. She can't tell whether the sadness comes from her own heart or from something in him. Browning intensifies the feeling with a striking comparison: she's like an acolyte who, overwhelmed by the joy of a sacred rite, suddenly collapses, deaf to the choir's "Amen." Even hearing his voice and vows, his physical absence leaves her disoriented. She asks outright: Did she only dream the glory of his love, and then faint when that brilliant light expanded too far for her soul to bear? The mood is exquisitely vulnerable—a close, trembling intimacy. She waits, aching, wondering if that lost radiance will ever return as vividly as the tears that burn down her face right now.
Sonnet 30 - I see thine image through my tears to-night — Summary
I see thine image through my tears to-night, And yet to-day I saw thee smiling. How Refer the cause?—Beloved, is it thou Or I, who makes me sad? The acolyte Amid the chanted joy and thankful rite May so fall flat, with pale insensate brow, On the altar-stair. I hear thy voice and vow, Perplexed, uncertain, since thou art out of sight, As he, in his swooning ears, the choir's Amen. Beloved, dost thou love? or did I see all The glory as I dreamed, and fainted when Too vehement light dilated my ideal, For my soul's eyes? Will that light come again, As now these tears come—falling hot and real?