Let us remember that in the first stanza of this poignant
poem, the sound of a woman singing sends the speaker off on a trip down memory lane, as
he remembers playing at the foot of a piano as a little boy whilst his mother is singing
and playing. The second stanza, which you have quoted above, states that the speaker
realises he is being nostalgic, yet in spite of his efforts to remain in the present,
the force of nostalgia in the form of the "insidious mastery of song" takes him back to
the memories of Sunday evenings at home with the winter cold outside and the warmth of
the fire and of family love in the inside as the family sit together and sing
hymns.
It is interesting that this pleasant memory is one
that the speaker fights against. He is now an adult, and he identifies that a massive
gap exists between the innocence of his childhood and how he perceived life and the
experience he has gained in his journey towards being an adult. He seems to recognise
that such childhood memories are extremely romanticised and idealised, and therefore is
somewhat suspicious and distrustful of them.
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