Music, when Soft Voices Die
Music remains in memory when soft voices die, and scents linger when violets sicken. As rose leaves are heaped on a beloved's bed after the rose dies, love will slumber on the addressee's thoughts when that person is gone.
By Percy Bysshe Shelley · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Love Poetry · 76 words
First lines
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 beloved's bed; / And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone, / Love itself shall slumber on.
Genres
- Lyric Poetry — Two rhymed quatrains connect lingering sounds and scents with a direct address imagining what will happen when the addressee is gone.
- Love Poetry — The closing comparison imagines love slumbering on the addressee's thoughts after departure, as rose leaves are heaped on the beloved's bed.
Tags
memory · enduring love · absence · music · fragrance · roses
What this Textopian page supports
Music, when Soft Voices Die is listed on Textopian as a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, dated Date unknown.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Lyric Poetry, Love Poetry
- Length: 76 words
- Structure: 1 section, 2 paragraphs
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