Question about "I am in Need of Music" by Elizabeth Bishop

[L.M. The Third]

I'm currently memorizing this beautiful sonnet, and I've been looking online to see if the general consensus is that it means actual music, or if it is more symbolic. I haven't found much that is conclusive. What do you folks think? Is its main theme the healing power music can have? Or is it something else?

[JBI]

Music is clearly a vehicle. What do you think the tenor is?

[Virgil]

I think the poem is pretty explicit. If I were to pick a single line to sum up the theme of the poem, it would be, "There is a magic made by melody." Yes, the music is healing as stated in "Oh, for the healing swaying, old and low,/Of some song sung to rest the tired dead," but I think the real healing is spiritual as indicated in the babtism metaphor of "A song to fall like water on my head,/And over quivering limbs, dream flushed to glow!" There are other spiritual overtones as well, "trembling lips," the mysterius pool image, and being held in arms by an abstract quality.

For those looking to read the poem, you can access it here: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/i-am-in-need-of-music/.

[L.M. The Third]

Thankyou, Virgil! Good answer and I fully agree. Thankyou for adding the link too. I was going to, but it was too late at night.