Quote from The House of Dust: A Symphony by Conrad Aiken (1889-1973), an American poet & novelist from Savannah, Ga. and best known for his lyric verse, e.g., Selected Poems (1929, Pulitzer), A Letter from Li Po (1955) and his Collected Poems won the US National Book Award in 1954. He was educated at Harvard University. Other works include the novels Blue Voyage (1927) and Great Circle (1933) and short stories (many of them based on psychoanalysis), along with critical essays, and an autobiography (1952). Aiken held the Chair of Poetry of the Library of Congress from 1950 to 1952 and was awarded the Gold Medal for Poetry by the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1958.

"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."

Further Reading:
Earth Triumphant and Other Tales in Verse (1914)
Cats and Bats and Things with Wings (1965)
Preludes (1966)
Selected Poems (1969)
Thee (1971).