Poetry Analysis 'Piano' by David Herbert Lawrence

Name: Zidan Mumtaz

Nim: 11200260000129

4D 

 

Piano by David Herbert Lawrence

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

 

 

 Summary 

Stanza 1: In the first stanza it explains that when the evening is bordering on night, there is a woman who is singing to the speaker, then later this singing reminds the speaker of a boy sitting under the piano while pressing his mother's feet who are singing, I assume that This boy was a speaker when he was little.

Stanza 2: The music also slowly makes the speaker dissolve in his nostalgia, reminding him of the memories when he sang in the living room with his family to the piano accompaniment

Stanza 3: In this last stanza describes when the speaker feels mixed feelings, on the one hand he is annoyed because he reminds him of his past where he had to continue living in his adult life, he fought his nostalgic feelings, but when he fought it, he even lingered in the memory of when he was a child.

THEME

The theme of this poem is about how to reminisce about childhood memories that will remain in the mind even though you have grown, the title 'Piano' here is also related to the content of the poem, it is brought back to past memories with a piano that has memories in his mind, the speaker here tries to relate events in the present he lives and when he was a child.

This poem tells about how a man reminisces when someone plays the piano, there is a part where he compares the situation where he was a child and an adult when he heard the piano, the role of memories in this poem is the overall theme, in this poem also tries to explain to us that no matter how old a person is, when he feels nostalgic about his childhood memories his heart.

This poem contains the speaker at a fairly mature age, when in the evening this man reminisces by reminiscing about his beautiful childhood, he thinks about how his mother played the piano in his past, seems moved he recalls his memories.

 

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

      There are several figurative languange in this poem, the first one is Imagery, contain Visual Imagery on the word "A child sitting under the piano" (Line 3) and on the word "With the great black piano appassionato." (Line 10). Auditory imagery on the word "In the boom of the tingling strings" (3) and on the word "The tinkling piano our guide" (Line 8), then there is tactile imagery on the word "a woman is singing to me" (Line 1).

There is also the personification of the word "till the hearts of me weeps to belong" (Line 6) which is meant when he is moved because he is reminiscing about his childhood, and in the word "in the boom of the tingling strings" (Line 3) and then there is a simile in the word "poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings" (Line 4) when her mother sees her playing her musical instrument, her mother smiles happily as if her mother is singing along to the melody produced by her son's musical instrument. and another simile on the word "I weep like a child for the past" (Line 12) explains that when he was carried away by the atmosphere of his childhood, he unconsciously cried and wiped his tears like a crying child.

       There is an Assonance, namely the repetition of the vowel sound /o/ in the word "To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside" (Line 7). And there is an alliteration in this poem, namely the sound /w/ in the word "With winter outside" (Line 7) and the sound /s/ in the word "smiles as she sings" (Line 4). and Consonance in the sound /s/ on the word "softly in the dusk" (Line 1) and the sound /m/ on the word "Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast" (Line 11).

       

  STRUCTURE

  This poem is a short poem. The type of this poem is Lyrical Poetry, which has 12 lines of poetry and is divided into three stanzas, and four lines in each stanza or called quatrain, and the rhyme scheme of this poem is AABB and this poem belongs to the genre Trochaic Meter.

 

  Tone & Mood

This poem contains the tone and mood of longing, someone who conveys a message about how his childhood memories and how the power of memories can make anyone melt to tears, no matter how old a person is and no matter how mature he is, when he remembers a beautiful child hood he will be touched when remembering it even made him cry. This poem aims to make the readers feel the same way as in poetry, namely to make the readers reminisce about the beautiful memories they had when they were young, to make longing about the good times that are still vivid in their minds, to make the readers reminisce about the memories. childhood when they are adults.