The poem is about Larkin's mother who after his father died lived alone, Larkin would travel to spend time with her. The first stanza starts with speech "that was a pretty one" showing his mother is commenting on the music he is playing "idly." He feels his mother "Looked so much forward to" Larkin vising but he didn't feel the same way.
The second stanza shows a classic blues song of Riverside Blues and how with that song holds memories for Larkin of "The flock of notes those antique Negroes blew" and how that all this time after he was born this song "made this sudden bridge" a sudden connection between him and his mother and though its plays on a musical term this idea shows that the song hold happy memories for both of them. Even though her "unsatisfactory age to my unsatisfactory prime." means it should be his best time in life but he is no better than his mother's age, showing they both led unsatisfactory life's.
Larkin reflects the "element" as time and that it " link us to our losses" links good memories with older not happy memories and that they "show us what we have as it once was, blindingly undiminished" implying youthfulness and optimism. He reflects the idea that growing up changes things for the worse- perhaps as you understand more and that "by acting differently we could have kept it so" by acting in a different way they could of kept the happy memories they once had without covering them in worse memories.
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