Piano

• Piano - Lawrence highlights the power of song/how it can bring back powerful memories
• “Softly“ - gentle atmosphere which contrasts as the poem ends of him crying - power of song
• “Taking me back down the vista of years “ - power of song = instantly transported back to the past

  • happy memories “vista” - scenic view - imagery = beautiful
• • “A child” - distance to himself by referring to himself in the 3rd person - does he feel so different now or is it ironic because at the end of the poem he “weep[s] like a child“ - maybe he hasn’t changed that much/he is just as vulnerable now as he was then
• • “Boom of tingling strings“
  • onomatopoeia - engages senses - how real this memory is to him
• • “small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as he sings“ - positive/graceful image of his mother
  • sibilance - creates a soothing tone - comfort from his mother singing
• • “In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song betrays me back“ - uncomfortable to look back/ does not willingly do so - against his will
  • ”insidious“ - sneaky/ power of song and how gradually it brings back memories but more importantly brings back emotions that he doesn’t want to feel
• • “the heart of me weeps”
  • personification = great sadness when he thinks about his childhood
  • contrast - “cosy parlour“ =emphasises security/comfort family provides
  • “singing hymns” - religious/wholesome
  • ”the tinkling piano our guide” - onomatopoeia - Gentle sound reflects the family he grew up in
  • -personification of piano being their “guide” - uncomplicated life before - piano gives them direction
• • “great black piano appasionato“ - plosives = hammering of the strings = mirrors intense emotions
  • ”floor of rememberance” - figurative language - emotions are just flooding through = power of memory/song which is bringing those memories
  • ”I weep like a child” - simile - instead of weep like a man - is his masculinity being reduced
• • Structural techniques:
  • three quatrains of rhyming couplets = written like a song - power of kusic
  • enjambment = flood of memory
  • trochaic meter = longing to return
• • tone: nostalgic, emotional, longing
  • themes: family,memory,power of music, childhood, masculinity