Like an outpost of winter: The cold, gloomy castle stands in
James Russell Lowell
strong contrast to the surrounding landscape filled with the joyous
sunshine of summer. So the proud knight's heart is still inaccessible
to true charity and warm human sympathy. So aristocracy in its power
and pride stands aloof from democracy with its humility and aspiration
for human brotherhood. This stanza is especially figurative. The poet
is unfolding the main theme, the underlying moral purpose, of the
whole poem, but it is still kept in vague, dreamy symbolism.