Piano by D.H.Lawrence /Analysis

 

Critical Analysis

In Piano the narrator finds himself in a setting where a woman is singing accompanied by piano.  This sound stirs something in his soul and he is suddenly transported back in time to his childhood.  he not only remembers his childhood memories sitting under the piano at home but also remembers his mother's smile and how the music stirred something within her, a joy that made her smile.  The narrator emotionally and physically connected to his Mother as she played the piano.  He was pressing her feet as she created this thing of beauty for him.  

In the present the narrator longs to be back in and to feel the warmth and the serene joy the music created on these evenings at home.  The music kept "winter outside"  Metaphorically creating a barrier between the cold world outside and the warmth within.  He remembers the music most often on "Sunday evenings" and that his mother played "hymns" in their "cosy parlour".  His mother was a master of songs and of creating warmth on these cold evenings and his soul, now longs to weep for what no longer exists.

He says that in present he has no hope of stirring his soul in the same way.  The real glamour has passed.  It is found in the days of his childhood, and in the simple memories that his mother created.  As he recalls once more those evenings, he notes that his "manhood is down in the flood of remembrance".  He weeps for the past and for the beauty music created as a child.

The simple language of the First Stanza alludes the childhood also.  It makes the reader feel nostalgic to return to the childhood.

The 2nd Stanza depicts the poet crying mentally returning to the old Sunday evenings at home with winter outside.  In this stanza the poet desires to return to childhood.  the use of comma in each line causes the reader pause like a musician.  He weeps in this stanza causing him to submit his nostalgic desires.

The final stanza begins with "so" this causes the reader to know that he will summarize his final points.  He writes, "so now its vain for the singer to burst into clamour" with the great black piano appassionato.

The rhythm of this stanza makes the poem faster like the end of the song.

The final couplet of "piano" have commas in the middle of them creating brief pause separate meaningful fragments.  The glamour of childish days is upon me my manhood is cast down in the flood of remembrance.  here the poet explains that although he is a man by age, his mind desires to return to his childhood.

In the conclusion Piano is a poem about nostalgia about the desire to return to childhood.  he uses musical terms and punctuation to control the rhythm of this poem making it much like a song.  Overall this shows the struggle between being an adult and longing to return to the past when life was simpler.




more to come..............