The poem begins with a quiet claim: a boy, or perhaps a man, can hear the stars. We learn almost nothing else about him, only that his father never asked what the sound was like. The speaker explains why with a simple judgment. The sound is "too solemn" and "too private to describe." Some experiences, the poem suggests, lose something once they are put into words.
Then the speaker turns and speaks to us: "Have you heard it?" The question isn't answered. Instead we get a scene, the hush after snowfall, a break in the clouds, and Orion striding through with his dogs behind him. The image is vivid but calm.
The mood is hushed and reverent, with a little wonder and a little loneliness. The father's silence could read as a missed connection, or as respect. The poem leaves that open, and it invites us to go outside and listen for ourselves.