The Piano

General context notes

This poem is about a man listening to a
piano piece and a woman singing, being
swept away in his thoughts and
remembering his childhood where he sat
by mother as she played. The form of
the poem is in three quatrains, the rhyme
scheme is in rhyming couplets. This has
the effect of creating a song-like quality
in the poem. This is important as this is
what we call a ‘lyrical poem’, a short
musical poem often about emotions.

Stanza One
L. 1: The reader is introduced to a scene
of a woman playing a piano. The adverb
‘softly’ creates a gentle and calm
atmosphere, exaggerated by word ‘dusk’
creates an atmosphere of half-light or
soft light. Might be a romantic mood,
yet there is also the presence of things
ending. The woman who is singing to
him may be a lover. Yet this is
juxtaposed with the title, which is not
about the woman but instead the piano,
suggesting the woman is not that
important - the memory is what matters.
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 Ll. 2-3: The poet uses a metaphor to
describe how the piano music takes him
back through the years. He is on a
‘vista’ looking at the good and beautiful
years behind him, yet this also suggests
the distance between him and his
memories. He remembers himself as a
child, sitting in ‘the boom of the tingling
strings’. The ‘tingling strings’ are
juxtaposed with the ‘boom’ the piano,
which creates the idea of a child feeling
that this is really loud when it is actually
very quiet. ‘Tingling strings’ uses
assonance to create an internal rhyme,
which creates an atmosphere of
calmness and gentleness, as well perhaps
of delicacy and fragility.
L. 4: The poet describes his mother as
very gentle and friendly, seen in her
‘smile.’ The ‘small, poised feet’
suggests her dignity and grace, as well
as mirroring the feet of the piano.
Alliteration of ‘p’ which creates an
emphasis on ‘pressing’ and ‘poised’,
mirroring the idea of pedals being
pressed in the plosive sound. Sibilance
at the end of the line creates a strong
flow at the end of the flow which creates
calmness.

Stanza Two
L. 5: ‘In spite of myself’ suggests that
the poet doesn’t want to hear this, and is
taken back against his will. ‘Insidious’
means something which creeps up on
you, as the song takes over his memory
by stealth, and he cannot control himself
when he listens to it. Strangely he seems
to see the memory as a ‘betrayal’,
because it forces him to stop
appreciating what he currently has, and
instead makes him remember what he
doesn’t have.
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 L. 6-8: Lawrence now states that the
memory is creating great sadness in him,
because he can’t live in the land of the
memory, he can never return to that
time. He characterises the time of his
memory as extremely nostalgic. The
juxtaposition of ‘winter outside’ and
‘hymns in the cosy parlour’ creates a
sense of homeliness and warmth, as
though all sadness is shut outside.
Enjambment between ‘outside’ and the
next line reinforces the juxtaposition.
‘Sunday’ would be a day of rest and
relaxation, showing his remembrance of
these idyllic times. The fact that he calls
this place ‘home’ suggests that he hasn’t
accepted that it is no longer his home.
‘The tinkling piano our guide’ shows
how it was the guide for their hymns and
prayers - now it guides him back to the
past.
Although times in the poem change, the
role of the piano stays the same,
bringing back a memory of what used to
be. ‘Tinkling’ suggest the fragility of the
memory, yet also the constant,
‘insidious’ presence of the piano.

Stanza Three
Ll. 9-10: Lawrence comments when the
piano goes at a faster pace it conveys his
memories as now despairing for the past
that he has lost. At the same time he
says that it is vain for the singer to make
a ‘great clamour’, as he is thinking about
his childhood, and her singing is a now
simply a distraction.
L. 10: The words in line 10 start short,
making the pace quick and jerky, before
crescendoing in the word ‘appassionato’,
mirroring what the piano and the singer
are doing. In some ways it is ironic that
the singer is in vain singing passionately,
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 given that the poet himself is distracted
by his own passion. Blackness may
signify the mournful nature of the piano.
Ll. 10-12: The poet describes himself
when hearing this memory as
emasculated, as though he himself has
been ‘cast down’ which is a very violent
phrase in almost biblical flood,
emphasizing the violence and
unstoppable nature of the flood. It also
suggests the flood of tears which the
memory may bring forth.
‘Glamour’, though it often means
beauty, here also means an illusion.
Here they are illusions because they are
simply a memory.
The poet comes back to himself in the
final line, describing how the only way
in which he is now like a child is in his
weeping. The pace slows down at the
end of this poem, as the poem is coming
to an end, like the poet's memory of
childhood.
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