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 * __D.H. Lawrence: An Analytical Study of //The Piano//__**


 * This page is dedicated to creating an annotated version of D.H. Lawrence's //The Piano//.


 * The Piano**

//Somewhere beneath that piano’s superb sleek black Must hide my mother’s piano, little and brown with the back That stood close to the wall, and the front’s faded silk both torn, And the keys with little hollows, that my mother’s fingers had worn. Softly, in the shadows, a woman is singing to me Quietly, through the years I have crept back to see A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the shaking strings Pressing the little poised feet of the mother who smiles as she sings. The full throated woman has chosen a winning, living song And surely the heart that is in me must belong To the old Sunday evenings, when darkness wandered outside And hymns gleamed on our warm lips, as we watched mother’s fingers glide. Or this is my sister at home in the old front room Singing love’s first surprised gladness, alone in the gloom. She will start when she sees me, and blushing, spread out her hands To cover my mouth’s raillery, till I’m bound in her shame’s heartspun bands. A woman is signing me a wild Hungarian air And her arms, and her bosom, and the whole of her soul is bare, And the great black piano is clamouring as my; mother’s never could clamour And my mother’s tunes are devoured of this music’s ravaging glamour.//

D.H. Lawrence composed //The Piano// in the early Twentieth Century durring the age of modernism. Some of the literary characteristics of this time period consist of psychology, anthropology, issues with communication, new conceptions of time, defining reality, experimental narrative and composing techniques, the individual in relation to society, isolation, art as a substitue for religion and the use of myth in allusions.

Lawernce's poem //The Piano// consists of rhyming cuplets. //The Piano// depicts a romantic scene of a man observing a woman playing a piano. Lawrence analyzes the relationship between man, woman, and child including complicated psychological desires. Looking beneath the surface of the poem we are thrown into the subconscious of a man's past reflections and associated emotions. The scene of a woman and child connecting around the company of a piano elevates previously forgotten sentiments and psychological moments of complacency. Lawrence's attraction to the female figure relays memories of his childhood and his relationship with his mother. This memory portrays the effect of mothers upon their son's future relationships with women. As the speaker returns from his subconscious he begins to criticize the woman playing the piano for attempting to engender his interest.


 * Biography of D.H. Lawrence


 * 1) Poem Text Taken From: [|Thinking About Lawrence]
 * 2) Picture Taken From: [|Art Explorer]