Poem #2: "Piano"

The Poem: "Piano"

Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me;

Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see

A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling strings

And pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings.

In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song

Betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong

To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside

And hymns in the cosy parlour, the tinkling piano our guide.

So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamour

With the great black piano appassionato. The glamour

Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast

Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Herbert Lawrence was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter who published as D. H. Lawrence. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation. In them, Lawrence confronts issues relating to emotional health and vitality, spontaneity, and instinct.

Lawrence's opinions earned him many enemies and he endured official persecution, censorship, and misrepresentation of his creative work throughout the second half of his life, much of which he spent in a voluntary exile which he called his "savage pilgrimage."At the time of his death, his public reputation was that of a pornographer who had wasted his considerable talents. E. M. Forster, in an obituary notice, challenged this widely held view, describing him as, "The greatest imaginative novelist of our generation."Later, the influential Cambridge critic F. R. Leavis championed both his artistic integrity and his moral seriousness, placing much of Lawrence's fiction within the canonical "great tradition" of the English novel. Lawrence is now valued by many as a visionary thinker and significant representative of modernism in English literature. 


PERSONAL RESPONSE
    The poem Piano, by D. H. Lawrence describes his memories of childhood. Hearing a woman singing takes him to the time when his mother played piano on Sunday evenings. In the present, this woman is singing and playing the piano with great passion. However, the passionate music is not affecting him, because he can only think about his childhood rather than the beauty of the music that exists in his actual space.

     “A woman is singing” softly to the speaker “in the dusk.” The speaker is describing the place he is at in the present moment. It’s partially dark, and a woman is singing to him. As he listens to the woman’s soft voice, he remembers the time when he was little. He says that it is taking him “back down the vista of years,” till he sees “a child sitting under the piano.” This child is the speaker.

     The child is “sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling strings,” and he is “pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings.” When the speaker was a child, he used to be under the piano where the strings were tingling since his mother was playing the piano. He used to press his mother’s feet, which were in balance. His mother was singing with a smile on her face.

     The speaker sees this scenery in his mind. As a reader, I can even imagine him standing in a dark room looking at a woman singing and imagining his old days with his mother.

TP-CASTT

TITLE
The poem might be simply about a piano or playing a piano. Is it about some memory the author has or some special feelings he has about his piano.

PARAPHRASE
The poet/speaker hears a woman singing, which makes him vividly recall a childhood memory. He listened to his mother playing the piano, while sitting underneath the piano and touching her feet. He longs to be back in the cozy, happy home of his family, when he was a child. He is overcome by emotion and cries.

CONNOTATION
The poem might mean that the author/speaker is unhappy with his current adult life. Things seemed to be quite loving and warm in his childhood.

There is a simple rhythm in the three-stanza, rhyming couplet structure, maybe related to his pleasant, more simple childhood. The piano itself is a symbol of rhythmic emotion.

Rich imagery created by use of such devices as onomatopoeia (boom, tingling, tinkling) and simile (weep like a child). The word “appassionato” suggests heightened emotions (passion).

“Manhood is cast down” suggests he is giving in to his longings for the past.

ATTITUDE

The poet/speaker’s tone seems to be one of sadness and longing, as shown by “till the heart of me weeps to belong…”, “the glamour of childish days is upon me…”, and “I weep like a child for the past”.

“softly, in the dusk…”

“a mother who smiles as she sings…”

“betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong…”

“cast down in a flood of remembrance…”

SHIFT
There is a subtle shift in tone from the beginning of the poem ,which seems like a simple recollection of a childhood memory.

In the second stanza, the author/speaker uses words like “betrays” and “weeps” to indicate a desire to return to these happier times.

Then in the third stanza, words like “it is in vain”, “appassionato”, “manhood is cast down”, “flood of remembrance”, and “I weep like a child for the past” demonstrate a more painful longing to have things the way they used to be.

TITLE

I think the title Piano represents a focal point for the author/speaker’s feelings. Pianos and music are, by nature, connected with our emotions and often with other people in our lives. Music can prompt us to feel very deeply, and thus the piano comes to represent a much happier time in the life of the author/speaker.

THEME

The theme of the poem appears to be longing for the past, which may seem to have been more loving and happy.

APA- 6 REFERENCE

Lawrence D. H. (1918). "Piano" Website. Retrieved from 

http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~keith/poems/piano.html