A Legacy — Summary

Leonora Speyer’s speaker describes a strange inheritance from lost love. For too long, she stayed quiet, overwhelmed by happiness. But once the relationship ended, she wandered at night feeling bitter and heartbroken. In that darkness, love itself returns—not as the person, but as an impulse—and touches her lips, giving her the ability to sing. Now her silence becomes melody, and the music is not for complaining but for praising the beloved’s sweetness. The poem suggests that even after separation and pain, love leaves behind a creative voice. That voice lets her turn a “great wrong” into song and fill empty, tuneless days with something beautiful. The mood is bittersweet: grief and admiration sit close together, and the act of singing feels like both consolation and a way of keeping the lost relationship alive.