Dancing on the Ceiling

The speaker feels delighted because love has made the world seem magical. Although his beloved is somewhere else, he imagines seeing her at night. His mood combines longing with happiness: he misses her, but the thought of her presence brings comfort and joy.

The image of the beloved dancing on the ceiling turns an ordinary bedroom into a stage for the speaker’s imagination. “Underneath my counterpane” means beneath his bedcover; hiding there does not make the vision disappear. When he says, “It’s not fair,” he may be playfully complaining that the image keeps him awake, even as he is grateful it remains.

The lyrics leave open whether the speaker is dreaming, imagining his beloved, or describing a playful fantasy. They do not explain why she is elsewhere, and the song does not need to. The central feeling is that affection can make absence easier to bear: he welcomes the imagined visitor, even when he pretends to ask her to go away.