God Permit Industrious Angels

God Permit Industrious Angels - meaning Summary

Afternoon Play with Angels

The speaker describes a fleeting, childlike encounter with an angel who invites afternoon play, causing her to forget schoolmates and ordinary obligations. When evening comes and the angels are summoned home, the sudden absence turns the world gray and disappointing—childhood games and their imaginative intensity collapse into dull objects like marbles. The poem captures the shock of losing a brief, transcendent joy and the mundane aftermath.