I sometimes wonder if poetry attracts a higher proportion of people with
amusia than the general population.
The dear friend of mine who introduced me to Richard Wilbur's work is profoundly tone-deaf. I had no idea for a whole decade, so I kept giving her free tickets to my concerts. I was stunned to find out later that she can barely tell one tune from another. Apparently she's almost as bad as Horatio Hornblower, who could only recognize when a band was playing the national anthem because all the men would remove their hats. Every song just sounded like noise to him. Apparently my friend kept coming to these things only out of loyalty to me, not because she actually enjoyed music. Now that's a friend!