“Piano” Introduction

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“Piano” Summary

“Piano” Themes

• 

  Memory, Nostalgia, and Childhood

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• 

  Music, Memory, and Emotion

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Piano”

• Lines 1-3

  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,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 3-4

  in the boom of the tingling strings
  And pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-6

  In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song
  Betrays me back,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 6-8

  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.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-12

  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.

  

  

  

  

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“Piano” Symbols

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  Dusk

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“Piano” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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• Caesura

  

  

  

  

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• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Sibilance

  

  

  

  

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• Simile

  

  

  

  

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“Piano” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Vista
• Tingling
• Poised
• In Spite of Myself
• Insidious
• Betrays me back
• Hymns
• Cosy
• Parlour
• Tinkling
• Vain
• Clamour
• Appassionato
• Manhood
• Cast Down
• Remembrance

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Piano”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Piano” Speaker

“Piano” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Piano”

More “Piano” Resources

• External Resources

  • Lawrence and Modernism — Learn more about the poet's life via the Yale Modernism Lab.

  • The Great and Troubled Life of D.H. Lawrence — Listen to a radio documentary about Lawrence, put together by poet John Hegley. 

  • The Poem Out Loud — Listen to a reading of "Piano."

  • The Rehabilitation of D.H. Lawrence — Read an article exploring the changing reputation of D.H. Lawrence after his lifetime.  

  • Georgian Poetry — Explore the 1911-1912 poetry anthology in which D.H. Lawrence appeared.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by D. H. Lawrence

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