ANALYSIS ANALYS IS 1: D. H. Lawrence‟s Piano shows a man experiencing nostalgia as he listens to a woman singing which reminds him of his childhood.
The poem starts with the man hearing the soft singing of a woman which takes him on a mental journey down memory lane and he sees visions of his childhood flashing in front of him. The memory he focuses on is that of a small child who is sitting beneath a grand piano as his mother plays it, taking his mother‟s elegant feet into his small hands and listening to the loud chords of music. The man is reluctant to remember those days and be affected by them, but the song which the woman is singing seems to have a slow subtle impact on him and despite his hesitance he gives in to his emotions and yearns for the days of childhood: the cold Sunday evenings in winter when it used to now outside and they, mother and son used to sit in the warm comfortable indoors and sing melodious hymns with the help of the piano. The man who was listening to the lady singing now thinks that it would be useless for her to continue on as he is already so affected by his memories that he is just physically present, his mind elsewhere. Without any thought of his adulthood, he bursts into tears remembering the blissful ignorance and innocence of his infant years. He starts weeping, thus bridging the gap between his past and his present. Lawrence uses words in such an intricate manner throughout the poem that they end up creating vivid and delightful imagery. By using the word „vista‟ he propels the i mages of the reader‟s own childhood in front of his eyes so that one experiences the same thing that man experienced. These images „take him back down‟ into the memories of his childhood. This immediately brings to mind the image that growing up is similar to climbing some difficult mountain and in his adulthood, the man is right at the top, and from there he falls into his childhood again. Onomatopoeia used in describing the „boom‟ of the „tingling‟ strings of the piano indicates that the man in the poem is none other but Lawrence himself, as the tiny detail that the piano would sound loud to a small child and consequently would be described as booming when later remembered even as an adult is so simply portrayed and thus removes all doubts that Lawrence is writing from personal experience. Further, the man remembers that his mother‟s feet were „poised‟ betraying the respect and awe a little child has for its parents. Even at that tender age, the child identifies dignified elegance with his other. The words „in spite of myself‟ and „betrays me back‟ show the immense struggle that the man goes through with his own warring desires. The need to remain solidly footed in his adulthood and the yearning to give that up for the innocence and joys of childhood tear him apart and he goes against his own desires by giving in to the latter. Again the words used are so simple yet effective in describing the evenings spent by the fire that they paint a vivid image in the readers mind: one of comfort, warmth and unlimited acceptance. This scene casts a melancholy shadow over the poem, as the man
remembering these simple moments from his past suggest that he no longer has the comfort of a family or home to lean upon, and that his life is riddled with difficulties and worries for him to long for the dull and boring adolescent years. This poem achieves that delicate balance between being cliché, sentimental and being full of self-pity; and expressing empathy. This is done because though the overview of the poem is simple and direct, there are some strong words which are sprinkled throughout with such apt accuracy that they intensify the powerful feelings that a man experiences when he is torn between his past and present lives. The title of the poem, „Piano‟ is quite suiting as m usic is proven to be the strongest trigger of memories. Also it implies that playing the piano, and subsequently music, played a large role in the man‟s life: his mother used to play and sing hymns on the piano in his childhood, and even as an adult he finds the time to escape the responsibilities for a few hours by attending musical concerts as the woman singing and playing the piano could be seen as such. The piano was their guide in his childhood, and it still continues to show him the way through life. Nostalgia is the central idea behind the poem but one would not be wrong to say that it also throws light on the pains of growing up. The man in the poem has traveled the road of life and has reached his adulthood, a phase of life which is associated with freedom of will and power of right. But he still contemplates giving all that up; his heart „weeps to belong‟ and his „manhood is cast down a flood of remembrance‟ as the „glamor of childish days‟ overcomes him emotionally. He throws away the confines of h is „manhood‟, breaking the unspoken rule that men aren‟t supposed to show emotions by crying for his childhood. When does a person experience such contrasting emotions? It is only when the responsibilities and burdens of adulthood become too much to bear that one starts wishing that one could somehow go b ack to one‟s immature and ignorant days of being a child, free of worries and still holding the limitless possibilities of growing up in its hand, head full of unbroken dreams and untarnished ideals and principles. Thus is „Piano‟ another one of Lawrence‟s masterpieces, as he once again portrays the complex workings and dealings of the human heart in such a refined, elegant yet simple manner that he pulls at all the right heartstrings and one finds oneself tearing up while remembering one‟s own childhood days. ANALYSIS 2:
Piano - D.H. Lawrence [1885-1930] Relevant Background
D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930) was born on 11 September 1885 in Eastwood, a coal-mining village in Nottinghamshire England.
He was the fourth child of a struggling coal miner who was a heavy drinker. His mother was a former schoolteacher, greatly superior in education to her husband. Lawrence's childhood was dominated by poverty and friction between his parents. He was educated at Nottingham High School, to which he had won a scholarship. He briefly became a teacher. Despite his hard background he grew up to become a writer that wrote about the relationships between men and women and between human beings and the natural world. He became one of the greatest figures in 20th-century English literature. In 1912 he met Frieda von Richthofen, a professor‘s wife and fell in love and eloped [ran away] with her. As a result he led a nomadic or wandering existence. DH Lawrence became a novelist, storywriter, critic, poet and painter. D.H. Lawrence died from Tuberculosis on March 2, 1930. D. H. Lawrence was close to his mother as he grew up. When she was ill in 1910, he assisted her death by giving her sleeping medicine. He wrote several poems about his close relationship mother. ‗Piano‘ is one such poem.
Summary
In the first stanza, the speaker places himself in a romantic situation. A woman is performing and singing for him. The speaker creates an interesting atmosphere by using the word ‗softly‘ and setting the action at dusk. The woman‘s singing opens up the speaker‘s memory. He then sees himself as a child playing with his mother‘s feet as she sings for him at a piano. He remembers the great noise made by the strings of the piano. Thus a conflict is suggested. The woman in the present is set against the woman from his past, his mother. His mother smiles warmly at him as he sings. Lawrence has established a conflict between a lover and his mother. In the second stanza, the speaker admits he tries to stay focused on the present. But the emotional power of the song drags him back to his past. The song‘s intensity has a secret influence on him. He ignores the singer and travels back to his childhood.
In his heart he longs for the secure and cosy Sunday evenings of his childhood with his mother singing to him. He fondly remembers the wintry scene outside as the family group sang hymns to the tune of the piano. In the third stanza, the speaker shows the battle between the powerful singing in the present and the irresistible draw of his memories. He is aware of the woman reaching the climax of her song. She plays the black piano with powerful feeling. The memory of the past is more glamorous than the present. As a man he should pay attention to the powerful singing of the woman who sings so passionately. But memory conquers his manhood. He remembers his mother‘s singing with floods of tears. He becomes his childlike self again.
Themes
Memory Lawrence shows that memory has a more powerful grip on him than the scene that he is part of as the woman sings to him. He gives into to the temptation to travel back in time to relive the secure feelings he had with his mother. As he remembers, he misses his childhood feelings so much that he forgets he is a man and weeps like a child. The poem is a conflict between present experience and memory. Memory wins. Childhood has more glamour than a woman singing passionately to him in the present. The theme of memory could be expressed here as a conflict between the present and the past. The past wins. Relationships The poem shows the strength of relationship between a man and his mother. For an adult, he has a somewhat unhealthy craving for his mother. There is a conflict in his heart between affection for his mother and passion for his lover. The smiles, sound and touch of his mother mean more to him than the passion that his lover is expressing through her song in the present. The mother and son relationship seems to be the main relationship in the speaker‘s case. The discussion on relationships could also take place under the heading ‗Emotions‘. Music The poem explores the powerful influence of music. The poet‘s lover is carried away by her own performance. She expresses her inner passion. Yet the very song she sings transports the speaker down memory lane. Her singing reminds the speaker of music and song that mattered a lot to him at another time. The music,
which should have appealed to him in the present, brought him back to charming childhood scenes with his mother. Music reconnected him with a happier time — a time when he was close to his mother. He focuses a lot on the sounds made by the piano: ‗tinkling‘ and ‗tingling‘, ‗boom‘ and ‗appassionato‘. Childhood In Conflict With Adulthood This theme can be discussed in the same terms as the theme ‗Memory‘, explored above. Childhood was a time of intimate moments with the speaker‘s mother. This childhood intimacy is more appealing to him than an adult relationship. It shows that Lawrence was not a balanced adult. He was dominated by a relationship that had been removed both by death and by the sheer fact of his growing up. His heart ruled where his mind should have. Sentiment, or soft hearted feelings, defeated passion.
Style
Repetition The piano is repeated in each stanza. The word ‗tinkling‘ is nearly a repetition of ‗tingling‘. The repetition of ‗weeps‘ emphasises the speaker‘s emotional need for his mother, even though she is dead. ‗Appassionato‘ echoes ‗boom‘. Imagery The poem provides two clear images of women playing a piano; one a mother to a child, the other an adult to an adult. The poet provides clear word pictures, especially of the cosy scene in the parlour on a musical winter‘s evening. Metaphor Memory is compared to a vista, which usually means a view across a landscape. Memory is also compared to a flood. Personification The piano is compared to a guide. Simile The poet compares his emotional self to a child. Language The language is intimate and conversational. It is also the language of narrative as the speaker is telling it like a story, building up to the climax of the last sentence. The words ‗boom‘ and ‗appassionato‘ capture the increasingly loud sound of the well-played pianos. The words show the difference between the speaker‘s ordinary mother and the polished, classically trained woman in the present. Metonymy Feet represent the speaker‘s mother. Contrast The past is contrasted to the present, a mother to a lover, a childhood self to an adult self. There is a clear contrast between the cosy parlour and the wintry scene outside.
Tone Overall the tone is intimate and revealing. Note the opening word: ‗softly‘. There is an emotional longing for the past, known as nostalgia. The word ‗betrays‘ indicates a tone of guilt at ignoring the singer‘s personal effort. The poet also feels sorry for himself, referring to memory as a flood and giving in to a desire to weep. There is also a tone of inner conflict when the speaker finds himself battling against his desire to remember the past at the start of the second stanza. There is a warm tone where the poet describes cosy childhood scenes. The tone is passionate when the speaker describes the passion of the young adult female singing to him in the present. Atmosphere A romantic atmosphere is created by the words of the opening line. The description of the climax of the singer rising to a crescendo is also passionate. The memories of his childhood create a warm, secure atmosphere. The words ‗parlour‘ and ‗hymns‘ create an old fashioned atmosphere. The words ‗flood‘ and ‗weep‘ create a sad atmosphere. Paradox [apparent contradiction] The music played so powerfully in the present, draws the listening speaker back into the past. The more the performer tries to appeal to the speaker, the more he loses focus in the present. As the piano reaches its climax ‗appassionato‘, the speaker is ironically flooded in remembrance. Alliteration The ‗b‘ in ‗betrays me back‘ emphasises the sense of helpless guilt experienced by the speaker as memory begins to dominate. The repeating ‗p‘ sound in the fourth line of the first stanza highlights the contact between son and mother and the rhythm of the piano playing. Assonance The repeating long ‗o‘ sounds of the first two lines of the last stanza show the musical climax of the singer‘s performance. The repeated ‗i‘ sounds in ‗smiles as she sings‘ create the facial effects of a smile as one reads those lines. Sibilance [repetition of ‗s‘ sound] The repeating ‗s‘ of the opening line deepen the feelings of intimacy and romance. Form The poem is a simple lyric in three stanzas. The present dominates the first two lines of each stanza. Childhood memories intrude in the third and fourth lines of each stanza. Rhyme There is a simple and repeated rhyme scheme. The first and second lines rhyme in each stanza. The third and fourth lines rhyme in each stanza. For example in the second stanza the endings are: ‗ong‘, ‗ong‘, ‗ide‘ and ‗ide‘. This simple rhyming fits the poem well. It expresses the simplicity of childhood. It also creates an obvious music that matches the music of the piano, which is the subject of the poem. Not the internal rhymes created by similar words: ‗clamour‘ and ‗glamour‘ and ‗tingling‘ and ‗tinkling‘.
ANALYSIS 3:
D.H Lawrence‟s poem “Piano” shows a man recalling his childhood as he is listening to a woman singing. This poem is laden with nostalgia and pathos; the speaker is longing for the simplicity and comfort of years gone by. This poem has a very slow, harmonious tone, which is accentuated by its structure and rhyme. It is also full of rich imagery that creates a vivid picture for the reader. It is a short work, consisting only of three stanzas, but Lawrence conveys the main theme of bitter-sweet nostalgia simply and honestly. The first stanza sets the basic tone for the rest of the poem; the speaker is listening to a woman singing and playing piano and it takes him on a journey through his childhood. The music reminds him of sitting under the piano as his mother played happily. In the second stanza, the speaker‟s inner conflict becomes apparent; he does not want to live in the past, he does not want to give into his emotions and grieve for his lost innocence. However, in the end of the second stanza, he begins allowing himself to experience the gloomy nostalgia. In the concluding verse, he abandons his “manhood”, gives in completely, and ends up weeping in longing for the innocence and happiness years long gone. This poem and D.H Lawrence‟s works in general are so successful because the poet is able to effectively convey a universal emotion simply and concisely without reverting to clichés and self pity. The speaker‟s feelin gs of nostalgia are clear through Lawrence‟s use of imagery, diction, and structure/rhyme. The scene is set in the first stanza, in the first line: the reader is introduced to a soft, dusky picture. The speaker then clears the dusk by describing a vivid image of his childhood and makes the reader sympathetic to his journey down memory lane. This is done through the use of light, happy images, such as the description of the speaker‟s mother. She “smiles as she sings”, even though her child is sitting under t he piano poking at her feet.. ANALYSIS 4:
The poem "Piano" by D.H. Lawrence is a complicated example of how a poet might think. The speaker in "Piano" is proud to be a full grown man, yet he loves remembering his happy childhood; his nostalgic attitude causes him to feel guilty as if he had betrayed his present state of being. Through effective imagery, Lawrence is able (to describe an image) to help the reader understand the speaker's nostalgic attitude. The diction and tone used in this poem reveal the speaker's struggle as his feelings mix between his desire to be a man and his desire to return to his childhood. The rhyme and structure of the poem keep the reader in tune with the flow of the poem. In this poem a
man struggles to remain a man while fighting off his memories of the past, which he feels would be uncharacteristic of his present maturity. The imagery in this poem helps to describe a picture in the reader's mind so that the reader can sympathize with the speaker during his journeys into the past. In the first stanza, in the first line, the first image is of a woman. In the fourth line the reader learns that this woman is the speaker's mother. The third line shows an image of a "child sitting under the piano . . . pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles." This image gives the reader an image, perhaps of a parlor room, of a child about three or four years of age enjoying the music produced by his mother. The love of the mother shines through her smile as she reciprocates to the child's gentle touch. Later, in the second stanza, the contrasting image of a cold, snowy night in the winter and the cozy parlor causes the "hymns" to seem doubly warm. This represents the traditional image of a grand family sitting around a warm, crackling fire; they sing carols together and just enjoy each other's company. The piano in the first and second stanza is described as "tingling strings" and "tinkling piano" respectively. These light sounds help support the warm cheery atmosphere during that time. These memories are what cause the grown man to be nostalgic for his past. The diction and tone of the poem also show the author's mixed feelings in the poem. The poem begins with the line, "softly in the dusk" to open the poem with a light, airy image. "Vista of years," are words used to show his nostalgia as he walks down memory lane. He remembers the "boom" of the piano, which would seem loud to a child who is four-years-old. In the second stanza, he is a little more negative about his memories. The song he is listening to "betrays me back." He feels that these memories should not be felt with such emotion because they cause him to "weep" as he reluctantly returns to his past. The last line of the poem is also negative as the speaker breaks down and goes "down the flood of remembrance." He again flows down the flood reluctantly into the past. The tone is quite the same, supporting the diction that the author remembers a happy past, but is reluctant in continuing to do so. He is happy to remember his past, but he feels his "manhood is cast down." This poem's structure and rhyme help bring an organization to the way the speaker shares his mixed feelings. The lines are coupled so that every two lines rhyme. The poem is structured so that in each of the three stanza the author describes an image of the present in the first two lines, and then the last two lines are spent describing his comfortable past. The second line of each stanza speaks of the vehicle that sends him back to the past while the third line of each stanza shows his increasing distress. In the first stanza it's the singing woman that takes him "down the vista of years." Next, the song takes him to "the old Sunday evenings at home." Finally, the "great black piano"
reminds him of the past. The continuing conflict of the speaker's emotions is described as he enjoys his memories, yet he despises his continuing nostalgia. The author uses diction and tone in this poem to reveal the speaker's struggle as his feelings mix between his desire to be a man and his desire to return to his childhood, and rhyme and structure to keep the reader in tune with the flow of the poem. Lawrence names the poem "Piano" and thus one is poised to assume the piano is the key element of this poem; however, this is an example of a poet's encouraging the reader to search for a deeper meaning.
ANALYSIS 5: Lawrence, like Hardy, was most of his life a novelist. Unlike Hardy he opted for sprung rhythm in his poetry, preferring the flexibility that sprung rhythm – which places irregular metrical stresses on important words – provides. Hardy, of course, used traditional verse forms with deliberate naivety and sometimes awkwardness. Lawrence is more obviously sophisticated. The often prose-like nature of Piano, bound as it is with alliteration, sibilance and rhyming couplets, can also be said to be mimetic – that is, its shape imitates the form of a piano piece, searching but failing to convince, just as piano and appassionato are musical instructions which (it could be argued) do not work wi thin the context of the poem. Like Hardy‘s The Self -Unseeing, Piano is about the lost felicity (happiness) of childhood, but Lawrence‘s approach is very different from Hardy‘s. Read these three interpretations, then formulate your own. In the poem, ―Piano,‖ D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930, England) becomes nostalgic — while a woman sings and plays the piano — and he starts to remember his childhood. The piano‘s melodic sounds would transport him back in time to his childhood years. Then, as a young child, he used to sit under the piano — accompanied by the strong vibration of the strings — while his mother played the piano, sang, and smiled. The smile was probably caused by the fact that the child was playing with her ―small, poised feet‖.
His childhood memory came suddenly, invading his new life by surprise. The entrapping piano melody allowed him no choice but to remember the past: ―In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song/Betrays me back. This sudden encounter with his childhood memories makes the poet long for those Sunday evenings — during wintertime — when they use to play hymns. The piano was the central element, guiding them with its tinkling sounds. The poet is now an adult. The beautiful memories of his childhood make him sad and melancholic — but he is also mad at the person who prompted these memories that make 2 his heart weep to ―belong/To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside/ And hymns in the cosy parlour‖. Because of the singer‘s great and passionate piano interpretation, he ―weep[s] like a child for the past‖. But there‘s no going back because he is now a man whose ―manhood [was] cast‖. The only liaison between now and then remains the beautiful and dramatic piano appassionato, which is tearing apart his soul. His innocent childhood is, now, only an overwhelming memory of a grown man: ―The glamour/Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast/Down in the flood of remembrance‖. This melancholic poem ―speaks‖ to the reader who once found himself wandering down memory lane, where some things are unforgettably special. [Betty Gilson]2 Featured Poem: ‗Piano‘ by D. H. Lawrence What struck me most about re-reading ‗Piano‘ by D H Lawrence was that it didn‘t strike me as being merely an act of nostalgia but a beautifully penned illustration on the nature of memory. One can almost hear the ―tingling strings‖ of the ―tinkling piano‖. These strike me as being like crystal clear water trickling and tumbling in narrow, rocky
streams. So our lives move on, never stopping – like a river – and we‘re left, on occasion, with our own ―insidious mastery of song‖ which takes back to somewhere we can never really be again (and we may well not want to be) but in those moments floods our present life all the same.
Poem Summary Lines 1 – 4 From the opening line of ―Piano‖ we are asked to see from the point of view of the speaker, who waxes nostalgic as he listens to a woman singing to him in the evening. Lyric poetry is defined by the expression of strong emotion from a first-person point of view, so we are given every indication of what to expect. The imagery of this first stanza sets the tone for a poem about memory. Because memory itself is a function of the relationship between past and present, it is significant that the poem takes place at dusk, a time somewhere between day and night. The image that sets up his memory, ―the vista of years,‖ is also apropos because it prepares us for a visual remembrance: the speaker literally sees a younger version of himself ―sitting under the piano.‖ The ―boom of the tingling strings,‖ an aural image, echoes the suddenness with which the memory hits the speaker, and, as readers, we are left in the same place as the speaker. The scene embraces sentimentality because of its clichéd representation of a mother and her child: he is sitting at her feet, adoringly, pressing her ―small, poised feet.‖ Though we have come to expect this type of imagery in greeting cards, we usually do not expect it from poetry, especially modern poetry. It is significant that thisimage pits the interior
world of the house against the exterior world of winter, as domesticity suggests safety and the innocence of childhood, whereas winter suggests the insecurity and experience of adulthood. The aabb rhyme scheme also adds to the clichéd nature of the image, as it underscores the conventional form of the poem. Lines 5 – 8 The second stanza takes us deeper into the speaker‘s memory, which he tells us he is fighting against. By using the word ―insidious‖ to describe the woman‘s ―mastery of song,‖ the speaker suggests an almost adversarial relationship with her. That he is ―betrayed‖ deeper into his memory, emphasizes the resistance he is putting up a gainst the onslaught of the memory. The last two lines of the stanza participate again in image building. Now the speaker presents us with an idyllic picture of his childhood. Like the initial image of the speaker as a child with his mother, this representation is also stock; it conforms to all of the stereotypes of what a middle-class Sunday night with the family would be like in the late-nineteenth century. The image of the piano links the first and second stanza to highlight the relationship between music and memory. Music was the speaker‘s guide when he was a child, and it remains his guide as an adult. Lines 9 – 12 The third stanza signals the speaker‘s thorough capitulation to his memory. It is ―vain‖ for the singer ―to burst into clamour‖ bec ause the speaker has already done that, giving himself over to the barrage of feeling and memory. But it is not to the singer that he gives his passion, but to the past. In this stanza, the speaker also makes a link between 4 manhood and childhood. It is not only the adult world of the present that he is forsaking for the past, but also the adult world of manhood. By equating manhood with the ability
to resist the temptation of sentimentality, Lawrence embodies yet another stereotype: that of the male whose identity rests upon his capacity not to feel. The image we are left with is the adult as child, uncontrollably weeping for his past.
