Poem: "Music when soft voices die"

[Tom]

Hi

Could you please explain the red line to me?

Music, when soft voices die,
Vibrates in the memory,
Odours, when sweet violets sicken,
Live within the sense they quicken.

Tom

[Prezbucky]

To "quicken" a sense (such as smell) is, I suppose, to awaken it, to enliven it, etc.

In this sense, what the author is roughly saying is this:

The odor of sweet violets -- which has become sickening/disgusting -- lives within, or remains with, the sense of smell.

In even plainer speech:

He smells the violets, which smell like crap... and the stench stays with him, remains in his nose, etc.

That's my take on the lines, anyway.
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Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.

[Tom]

Many thanks, prezbucky!

Anyone else would like to add something?? :roll:

Tom

[Conchita]

Well, I see it slightly differently from Tom, in that I think 'sicken' was used here in its literary meaning: smells can stay with us (in our 'memory's nose') after they have faded or, literally (and literarily), after the violets have wilted (there's no bad smell involved, in my opinion!) -- perhaps it's the old question of half full or half empty...

[Yankee]

I also understand that part a bit differently from Prezbucky. My interpretation is similar to Conchita's.

I think 'sicken' simply means 'die' or 'start to die' and the last line means that the scent of a flower (before it dies or wilts) remains in your memory -- in this case a memory that came from your sense of smell.

Amy
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"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." ~ Abraham Lincoln

[Prezbucky]

ahhh... the stench of the sick violet...

as opposed to the sickening stench of the violet
_________________
Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.