PIANO (D.H LAWERENCE)

Piano (D.H.Lawrence)

D. H. Lawrence’s Piano shows a man experiencing nostalgia as he listens to a woman singing which reminds him of his childhood. In Piano, D H Lawrence uses flashback between a woman singing and his childhood memory of sitting beneath his mother’s piano. Lawrence uses sensory language, particularly sound, along with the present tense, to conjure up a vivid, sensual memory which feels as if it is happening now. When the flashback ends, the jolt is traumatic. While the recollection of being with his mother is a happy one, in the end, he weeps ‘for the past’.

D.H Lawrence’s poem “Piano” shows a man recalling his childhood as he is listening to a woman singing. This poem is laden with nostalgia and pathos; the speaker is longing for the simplicity and comfort of years gone by. This poem has a very slow, harmonious tone, which is accentuated by its structure and rhyme. It is also full of rich imagery that creates a vivid picture for the reader. It is a short work, consisting only of three stanzas, but Lawrence conveys the main theme of bitter-sweet nostalgia simply and honestly. The first stanza sets the basic tone for the rest of the poem; the speaker is listening to a woman singing and playing piano and it takes him on a journey through his childhood. The music reminds him of sitting under the piano as his mother played happily. In the second stanza, the speaker’s inner conflict becomes apparent; he does not want to live in the past, he does not want to give into his emotions and grieve for his lost innocence. However, in the end of the second stanza, he begins allowing himself to experience the gloomy nostalgia. In the concluding verse, he abandons his “manhood”, gives in completely, and ends up weeping in longing for the innocence and happiness years long gone.