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In this poem the persona is listening to a song, reminding him of a time when he was much younger, and someone who he shared a moment with listening to this song, someone older than him who he did not have an intimate relationship with but felt affection for, possibly his mother. The poem looks back with sadness as the persona thinks of the things he wishes he had don differently and the person he lost over time. 

Stanza 1:

• 'heard you call' shows the relationship was not intimate suggesting they may have grown apart. 'heard' demonstrates a definity and shows it happened in the past. 
• repetition of 'unsatisfactory' reinforces the personas regret and lack of acceptance over the things that occured. 
• 'wasting my time at home that you looked so much forward to' suggests a mother an son relationship that wasnt equal, he wasnt appreciative of her and their relationship wasnt in harmony, but now he is older he understands her point of view. 
• 'idly' connotes youth and shows he felt he was doing nothing meaningful. 
• 'room where i played record after record' shows he is regretful as he should have spent more time with this person, feels it was a 'waste'. 

Stanza 2:

• 'blues' connotes sadness, possibly showing the person he is talking about is dead. 
• 'always remember' suggests all he has left is his memories and holds onto them now, unlike in his youth. 
• 'flock of notes' suggests they are alive or the music brings his memories to life.
• 'blew' shows his positive view of the music, that it is gentle and full of care and love for him. 
• 'antique' suggests it is old but gold. 
• 'three decades later made the sudden bridge from your unsatisfactory age to my unsatisfactory prime' shows he is now as old as they were and understands them now. 'bridge' links to the theme of music and suggests they now have a link of understanding they never did before. 'unsatisfactory age' shows how people dont want to be old, while 'unsatisfactory prime' shows how he felt is youth was wasted. 'sudden' could link to a shock death, or the shock of looking back and feeling this regret.

Stanza 3:

• 'we are not suited to the long perspectives' suggests we shouldnt look back as it is too painful.
• 'they link us to our losses' suggests memories show us what we've lost and he doesnt want to remember because of this. 
• 'blindingly undiminished' suggests it is painful and even disabling to see something as it was seemingly real and indestructable, but knowing that is is over and utterly diminished. 
• 'as though by acting differently we could have kept it so' demonstrates he is regretful and has a desire to repeat the past but recognises that we cant.