A Poetic Inquiry

I selected the following sonnet to reflect my big question.

Bread and Music

by  Conrad Aiken  (1889-1973)

Music I heard with you was more than music, 

And bread I broke with you was more than bread; 

Now that I am without you, all is desolate; 

All that was once so beautiful is dead.

Your hands once touched this table and this silver, 

And I have seen your fingers hold this glass. 

These things do not remember you, belovèd, 

And yet your touch upon them will not pass.

For it was in my heart you moved among them, 

And blessed them with your hands and with your eyes; 

And in my heart they will remember always, — 

They knew you once, O beautiful and wise.

I tried to tie this in to my big question which was, if you do not remember, was

"How are people capable of finding happiness in destitute conditions, yet are also able to find misery or at least discontent in the most optimal of circumstances?"

    I felt that I thing I may have overlooked when trying to answer this question was the people that you are with.  We draw hope not from our circumstances but rather from the people that are experiencing the situation with us.  In this poem, the narrator still has all the possessions that  were part of his happy life.  But now he is missing a beloved one, and the things feel empty.  Many people suffering are able to push on because of the inspiration of the others suffering with them.  On the other hand, most people who find sorrow in their healthy and wealthy lives see themselves as "all alone."  In a way, the people that have only each other are better off than the ones who have everything else.