Love
Music, When Soft Voices Die
LoveTime & Brevity
Music, when soft voices die,
Vibrates in the memory—
Odours, when sweet violets sicken,
Live within the sense they quicken.
Rose leaves, when the rose is dead,
Are heaped for the belovèd’s bed;
And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone,
Love itself shall slumber on.
✦ ✦ ✦
Codex Note
Eight lines on how the beloved outlives absence. As melody survives the silenced string and scent the withered violet, love goes on ‘slumbering’ in memory.
Cite this poem
MLA
Shelley, Percy Bysshe. “Music, When Soft Voices Die.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/shelley/2/.
Chicago
Shelley, Percy Bysshe. “Music, When Soft Voices Die.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/shelley/2/.
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