These lines present a comparison between the poor community and sad music. This promotes a melancholy tone making the reader feel sad and negative about the story.
Explanation:
"Marigolds" is a short story that presents the impact of the great depression on society and how it brought down the hope and happiness of many people across the country. The story has a melancholy and sad tone, which is highlighted in lines 27-29 that present a metaphor that compares the poor community to a sad song, showing that the situation of the community was able to move and sadden anyone, as well as a song that had that feeling as an objective.