While kissing Helena, the speaker feels his own soul drift up to his lips. The soul, called a “poor thing,” has innocently wandered there, wanting to follow the kiss right out of his body and into her. But at the last moment, he catches it and holds it back. He calls himself cruel for this interception, yet the tone is light and playful — not truly anguished, but tenderly self-mocking.
The little scene catches a flirtatious hesitation: half longing to give everything, half keeping just enough back to stay in control. The soul’s attempted escape is both touching and faintly comic, turning the kiss into a sweet, private drama. The mood feels intimate and wistful, like a lover’s game where the edge of surrender is glimpsed, then held at bay with a gentle sigh.