Read the poem. melody for saxophone man it was a dead-air day— the soundproof sky pressing its gray padding onto my head the bare silver trees were flutes no one’s fingers played and i remembered it was the shortest day of the year. i muted my brain through an echoless tunnel— then the hill crest launched a sky tune on the ridge a whiskered saxophone man in a cloud-black coat leaned back tossed bebop notes, rang the bell of his gold horn— they swirled kicked curled poured like steam breaking free like time looping loops— i rose spinning among them shedding pink blue orange gold sparks like a roman candle and sound-painted all the land the silver trees tootled counterpoint the hills streamed chorus after chorus the old man nodded lipped tongued spit head rolling cheeks blowing waist wrenching fingers racing grin cracking the airwaves i was the tune. how does the symbolic description of music affect the poem's meaning? it shows that the sky, music, and human beings are basically one and the same. it implies that the saxophone player is an angelic being sent to heal the speaker's spirit. it suggests that the speaker does not literally hear the music, but only imagines it. it expresses the speaker's discovery of joy in what he had thought was a dismal universe.