Music I Heard With You

Music I Heard With You

Music I heard with you was more than music,
And bread I broke with you was more than bread;
Now that I am without you, all is desolate;
All that was once so beautiful is dead.

Your hands once touched this table and this silver,
And I have seen your fingers hold this glass.
These things do not remember you, beloved,
And yet your touch upon them will not pass.

For it was in my heart that you moved among them,
And blessed them with your hands and with your eyes;
And in my heart they will remember always,
—They knew you once, O beautiful and wise.

Conrad Potter Aiken


Analysis:

This is a quatrain poem with rhyming second and fourth lines in each stanza.

Music I Heard With You describes the memory of a person's love. Personally, this poem describes an aged person thinking about their deceased husband or wife.


"Now that I am without you, all is desolate;
All that was once so beautiful is dead."

He/She is now alone, thinking about their wonderful times together in the past.


Music I heard with you was more than music,
And bread I broke with you was more than bread;
...

Your hands once touched this table and this silver,
And I have seen your fingers hold this glass.

The lines above shows the details of their life in the past; listening to music together, sharing bread, and sitting together by the table. These activities may seem insignificant, but to the main character of this poem, they are sweet moments that could never come back again. This poem shows that if you love someone deeply, you will remember every detail of them even when they're gone. Memories will last a lifetime.