Piano is a lyrical poem exploring how the speaker's childhood memories flood back to him upon
hearing a woman singing. The speaker initially seems intent on resisting these charged
memories, but "in spite of" himself the music "betrays" him into going back in time to his
childhood which ultimately leads him to become overwhelmed with emotion.
The memories themselves have a warmth; D.H. Lawrence appeals to the senses with the "cosy
parlour" and "tinkling piano" to depict that wintery Sunday afternoon. The onomatopoeia of
the word “tinkling” helps us to envisage the scene by bringing it alive with the sound of the
“tinkling” notes of a piano.
By the end of the poem the narrator gives himself over fully to the sorrowful nostalgia and the
"glamour of childish days" in a most dramatic way which explains his initial reluctance to
indulge them.
PIANO
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 *
personification
To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside
And hymns in the cosy parlour, the tinkling piano our guide *
present
participle
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. * emotive
diction
D.H.Lawrence
hearing a woman singing. The speaker initially seems intent on resisting these charged
memories, but "in spite of" himself the music "betrays" him into going back in time to his
childhood which ultimately leads him to become overwhelmed with emotion.
The memories themselves have a warmth; D.H. Lawrence appeals to the senses with the "cosy
parlour" and "tinkling piano" to depict that wintery Sunday afternoon. The onomatopoeia of
the word “tinkling” helps us to envisage the scene by bringing it alive with the sound of the
“tinkling” notes of a piano.
By the end of the poem the narrator gives himself over fully to the sorrowful nostalgia and the
"glamour of childish days" in a most dramatic way which explains his initial reluctance to
indulge them.
PIANO
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 *
personification
To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside
And hymns in the cosy parlour, the tinkling piano our guide *
present
participle
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. * emotive
diction
D.H.Lawrence
