1) To me, this so called Death has taken some sort of a human form and is taking the

speaker on something that is almost like a date. I did a little bit more research and found
out that the poem had two more stanzas that were not included in the exert, but I
incorporated them into my meaning of the poem as well. But this death gentleman
brings her around the town and they see what you would expect to see in a town;
however, the wording of the trip made it sound very suspicious and mysterious, like
something was different about this trip that normal people would not have noticed or is
special to her case. The word passed are repeated many times, which to me meant that it
was trying to describe something that is very normal but yet in this scenario it was
special; musically it could be represented by repeating notes that were played recently,
over and over again. Upon reading the rest of the poem, I learned that it was actually the
speakers death, and that he/she had already died centuries already and they just went on
a trip around the place and went back to his/her burial. To me that adds a sense of
unsettlement, if a soul is wondering around after its death, it usually means that they are
not able to pass-over and have some unfinished business in the mortal realm; which is
why I chose a minor key for the composition. A minor key tends to sound more dark and
ominous than a major one. Death its self is no happy matter, it is a very deep and dark
thing that cannot be described with happiness and rainbows. Tension could be replicated
with notes that almost sound like they are familiar with a slight change to them. Death is
not laughing matter.
2) One of the biggest challenge in expressing the meaning of a text with music is the limits
to how much you can put onto the staff. A balanced song has different components and
dynamics to try and express its feelings. But with such simple notations and staff writing,
one can only feel retrained to fully describe what they are trying to portray. Rhythm is
also a lot harder to perform and write when you are limited to a click keyboard on the
computer; Another big challenge for a beginner at composition is to just express what one
feels onto musical notations; one cannot just simply put their soul onto the paper or else
everyone will become a successful musician. But to overcome this, there are small things
to take into account to try and make it as close as you can to the real goal. For example,
picking the right major/minor is like setting the stage. If you pick the correct one the right
accidentals to the notes will help give the mood, and in this case a minor for a darker
feeling. The note durations helped as well, the variation between an eight note and a
quarter note helped created a feel of tension and suspicion because you never know what
is going to happen next. And keeping the notes on a lower range helps create that
mysterious feel as well.
3) Every musical element can help make or break a piece, it is how we use that skill to help
us. Just starting to learn music theory is a very hard process, and to use that skill to
develop music based off our sensation is a very challenging task. Learning about how to
make more use of the rhythm and different intervals of chords could help in such a task,
like how in the poem, it shows us where to break and the repeated words; there are
techniques to accomplish that task however we are just barely scratching the surface of
music theory.