The speaker addresses someone who has arrived too late. Heaven, she says, has been carried further off—the chance for a shared eternity is already gone. If this visitor had “blundered in” earlier, maybe they would have glimpsed how eternity gets put on, like a garment. Now, all that’s left is to knock at a door that’s out of reach and apologize to the skies themselves. The speaker is not angry, but quietly resigned, dressed in white like a patient sufferer or a spirit in a burial shroud. The white suggests both politeness and a kind of ghostly readiness. The mood is gentle and elegiac, holding a soft regret: the moment was missed, heaven has shifted, and the visitor must now make their manners to the infinite, forever shut out from the meeting the speaker had so carefully prepared for.
Take your Heaven further on — Summary
Take your Heaven further on -- This -- to Heaven divine Has gone -- Had You earlier blundered in Possibly, e'en You had seen An Eternity -- put on -- Now -- to ring a Door beyond Is the utmost of Your Hand -- To the Skies -- apologize -- Nearer to Your Courtesies Than this Sufferer polite -- Dressed to meet You -- See -- in White!