The English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote "Music, When Soft Voices Die" in 1821. Comparing love to other beautiful experiences such as listening to music and smelling "sweet violets," the poem's speaker insists that even after their "belovèd" is "gone," the love that they shared will live on in the speaker's memory. Like many of Shelley's poems, "Music, When Soft Voices Die" was discovered and published by his wife, novelist Mary Shelley, after his death in 1822.
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The Full Text of “Music, When Soft Voices Die”
1Music, when soft voices die,
2Vibrates in the memory—
3Odours, when sweet violets sicken,
4Live within the sense they quicken.
5Rose leaves, when the rose is dead,
6Are heaped for the belovèd's bed;
7And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone,
8Love itself shall slumber on.
The Full Text of “Music, When Soft Voices Die”
1Music, when soft voices die,
2Vibrates in the memory—
3Odours, when sweet violets sicken,
4Live within the sense they quicken.
5Rose leaves, when the rose is dead,
6Are heaped for the belovèd's bed;
7And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone,
8Love itself shall slumber on.
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“Music, When Soft Voices Die” Summary
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“Music, When Soft Voices Die” Themes
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Love, Death, and Memory
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Music, When Soft Voices Die”
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Lines 1-2
Music, when soft voices die,
Vibrates in the memory— -
Lines 3-4
Odours, when sweet violets sicken,
Live within the sense they quicken. -
Lines 5-6
Rose leaves, when the rose is dead,
Are heaped for the belovèd's bed; -
Lines 7-8
And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone,
Love itself shall slumber on.
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“Music, When Soft Voices Die” Symbols
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Roses
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“Music, When Soft Voices Die” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Parallelism
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Personification
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Sibilance
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Alliteration
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“Music, When Soft Voices Die” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Odours
- Rose leaves
- Heaped
- Belovèd's
- Thy/Thou
- Art
- Slumber
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Music, When Soft Voices Die”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“Music, When Soft Voices Die” Speaker
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“Music, When Soft Voices Die” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “Music, When Soft Voices Die”
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More “Music, When Soft Voices Die” Resources
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External Resources
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The Poet's Life — A biography of Shelley from the Poetry Foundation.
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Shelley's Posthumous Rise to Fame — An article written on the 200th anniversary of Shelley's death.
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A Look at British Romanticism — The Poetry Foundation's introduction to one of the most important movements in English literature.
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A Documentary on Shelley's Life — A 2012 Write Like documentary looking at Shelley's upbringing and literary accomplishments.
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A Reading of the Poem — Listen to the poem read aloud.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley
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