The speaker watches the people below from behind stone windows and parapets, longing to experience life among them. The speaker has memorized the faces of the people but remains unseen. All their life, the speaker has wondered what it would feel like to spend a day as part of the community below instead of observing alone from above. The speaker would give anything for just one day to experience life out there with the millers, weavers and their families, strolling by the Seine river like ordinary people who are unaware of being observed.