Piano by D.H Lawrence

 PIANO BY DH LAWRENCE 

Poem-

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.

Description of poem

1. The poem Piano is written by DH Lawrence.

2. It beautifully captures a sense of nostalgia and a longing for the poet.

3. The Poem begins with a woman singing to the speaker.

4. The time of singing is 'dusk' a dark to the Speaker.

5. The music and singing take him back in memory to a point.

6. Where he sees a child sitting under the piano.

7. The child is pleasing the facts of his mother who is singing and smiling looking at the child.

8. In the next stanza, the poet says that the music makes him feel strongly nostalgic.

9.  The speaker wants to go back to the time when he spends Sunday evenings in winter with his family listening to hymns in the parlour room with the piano's music.

10. The Poem goes on further describing the helplessness of the poet, who very well that he's unable to go to the past but like a child yearns to go back.

11. The Poem jumps around between childhood and the present.

12. The lines go longer as the poet goes deep in the past.

13. The Semicolon indicates the time shift.

14. The poet uses quatrains (four-lined Stanzas). This evokes the shape of a hymn and musical qualities.

15. The rhyme Scheme is (aa, bb) rhyming couplet creates a regular sound a soothing and comforting repetition of sound.

16. The external rhyme evokes musical quality.

17. The language of the poem is emotive quality the ‘heart weeps to belonging’, down the flood of remembrance.

18. He uses the continuous verb " woman is sitting " Child is sitting.

19. The poet is nostalgic, deeply touched, to his past, 'old Sunday evenings ''Cosy parlour '. 

20. D.H. Lawrence was a member of The Blooms- Sbury group. Their Common themes were psychology, emotion, memory, and time.

21. The poet is famous for his sensitive explanation of feelings and emotions.

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