What experience of "Nell" is alluded to in the last two lines of stanza V? She and her grandfather had been lost on their journey from London.
Why does the poet say that the whole camp "lost their way" with "Nell" on English meadows? The narrative was so vivid that the miners, in spirit, accompanied her in her wanderings.
Stanza VII
What is meant by "Their cares dropped from them"? They forgot themselves, their cares and privations, and realized the hopes and fears, the joys and sorrows of "Little Nell".
How was this result brought about? It was due to the fascination of the story.
To what does the poet compare this? To some "spell divine", some supernatural influence, which causes their own troubles to disappear for the time being.
Give, then, the meaning of "o'ertaken as by some spell divine". They are brought, as it were, under the influence of some magician, who, by the exercise of his power, transports them from their own world to that in which "Nell" lives and moves.
Show the beauty of the comparison in the last two lines of this stanza. As the needles of the pine, through the action of the wind, fall silently and almost unperceived, so the cares of the miners were forgotten in the all-compelling interest of the story.
Compare Longfellow:
The cares that infest the day
Shall fold their tents like the Arabs,
And as silently steal away.