# Perplexed Music analysis

Perplexed Music — Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1844)

This Perplexed Music analysis explains its meaning, themes, form, and major literary devices.

Full text from [Full text of Perplexed Music](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Papers_on_Literature_and_Art_%28Fuller%29/Part_II/Chapter_2). Public domain in the US (First published in 1844, before 1931; the original work is public domain in the United States.).

## Summary

The poem compares experience to a musician whose difficult harmonies represent a divine order humans cannot yet hear. Angels perceive the completed cadence behind apparent discord.[1]

```
Experience, like a pale musician, holds
A dulcimer of patience in his hand:
Whence harmonies we cannot understand
```

## Meaning and interpretation

Browning does not deny suffering; she makes limited perspective central to faith. The final “SWEET” reframes pain without pretending that present notes are easy to hear.[2]

```
But angels leaning from the golden seat,
Are not so minded; their fine ear hath won
The issue of completed cadences;
```

## Themes

### Meaning and interpretation

Browning does not deny suffering; she makes limited perspective central to faith. The final “SWEET” reframes pain without pretending that present notes are easy to hear.[1]

### Form and language

This fourteen-line sonnet-like lyric uses an octave and sestet, chiefly iambic pentameter, and a musical metaphor for meaning.[2]

## Form and meter

This fourteen-line sonnet-like lyric uses an octave and sestet, chiefly iambic pentameter, and a musical metaphor for meaning.[2]

```
Experience, like a pale musician, holds
A dulcimer of patience in his hand:
Whence harmonies we cannot understand
```

## Literary devices

### Imagery and contrast

```
Experience, like a pale musician, holds
A dulcimer of patience in his hand:
Whence harmonies we cannot understand
```

Concrete images turn the poem’s central abstraction into a memorable scene.

### Repetition and sound

```
But angels leaning from the golden seat,
Are not so minded; their fine ear hath won
The issue of completed cadences;
```

Repetition and patterned sound give the argument emotional force and shape the reader’s pace.

## Historical context

The work belongs to the public-domain period identified by its first publication year. Its historical setting and literary conventions inform the interpretation without replacing close reading.[1]

This fourteen-line sonnet-like lyric uses an octave and sestet, chiefly iambic pentameter, and a musical metaphor for meaning.[2]

## What critics say

> “She is at home in the Universe; she sees its laws; she sympathises with its motions.”
>
> — Margaret Fuller, [Margaret Fuller, Papers on Literature and Art](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Papers_on_Literature_and_Art_%28Fuller%29/Part_II/Chapter_2)

> “The issue of completed cadences;”
>
> — Elizabeth Barrett Browning, [Wikisource](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Papers_on_Literature_and_Art_%28Fuller%29/Part_II/Chapter_2)

## Common questions

### What is the main meaning of Perplexed Music?

The poem’s meaning emerges from its central images, its treatment of change or conflict, and the relationship between the speaker and the world.

### What are the main themes in Perplexed Music?

Its main themes include interpretation, human experience, and the way poetic form gives those concerns shape.

### What form does Perplexed Music use?

The poem’s form is described in the analysis above; meter, lineation, repetition, and sound all contribute to its effect.

## References

- [Margaret Fuller, Margaret Fuller, Papers on Literature and Art](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Papers_on_Literature_and_Art_%28Fuller%29/Part_II/Chapter_2)

- [Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Wikisource](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Papers_on_Literature_and_Art_%28Fuller%29/Part_II/Chapter_2)

- [Public-domain full text](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Papers_on_Literature_and_Art_%28Fuller%29/Part_II/Chapter_2)

- [Poem text and formal analysis](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Papers_on_Literature_and_Art_%28Fuller%29/Part_II/Chapter_2)

## Open the editor

Write with this poem’s meter in the editor: https://lyriic.com/write/sonnet