Critique

In D.H Lawrence’s versions of ‘The Piano’, the use of words and rhythmic schemes to create sound and effect was effective in defining meaning to the idea of lost child hood and lost innocence in music. The poem drips of nostalgic thoughts of becoming a child again, experiencing music as a child once again.

However, in the earlier version, Lawrence had more stanzas and the image of a woman in the poem was made more obvious. References to the narrator’s mother and the effect her music, and the experience it gave, was extended in the original version. It tends to be more explicit and descriptive in building a bond between narrator and their upbringing. The earlier version is more complex in making comparisons between past and present music environments. It is more critical of the modern piano practices. The narrator implies that music was a private family experience and that the ‘clamour’ and ‘glamour’ of the modern great black piano disrupted his first impressions of music and life through his mother’s playing. The comparisons of the singers in the poem, the mother, sister and bare woman emphasize the sense of loss as the piano has progressed?


In the more modern version, Lawrence has condensed the feelings of the past being lost by the piano being commercialized. The description of the mother is downplayed in contrast to the earlier version. This may be with the intention of keeping the narrator’s desire to go back to their childhood, (where music is concerned) the main focus. The meaning of the poem is clearer in this version, the original version tends to wander off into the past and focus more on the mother than the impact the singer has on their memories. It is blameful towards the female singer for taking them back to ‘the old Sunday evenings at home….and hymns in the cozy parlour.’ It is accusatory of the singer for then interrupting their flashbacks and is sensed through the use of words. ‘So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamor’ suggests a realization on the narrator’s part. After going back to their ‘childish days,’ they now see the singer as an annoyance, with the ‘great black appassionato.’

The use of language in both poems achieves a melodic impression to both experiences the narrator has when both man and child. The ‘boom of the tingling strings’ and ‘the tinkling piano’ demonstrate the child’s impression of the piano. Their awe of the instrument and comfort they get from it and their mother. This is contrasted with the ‘adult’ perspective of the instrument, where it is then ‘insidious’. In the earlier version more sound and visual effects were made. The image of a child, 'sitting... in the boom of the shaking strings’ tells that the instrument is important to the child.

Whatever the intention, the effect of intimidation is achieved through the strong comparisons. ‘Mother who smiles as she sings’ came across as simple and natural, not enhanced or melodramatic. Little description is given to the style of the mother’s voice. Where as the woman singing in the present, her style and effect of her voice is strongly described. ‘The full throated woman…singing me a wild Hungarian air’ creates a harsher experience as opposed to the unobstructed, impulsive singing of the sister ‘singing love’s first surprised gladness, alone in the gloom’. There appears to be an importance for solitary intimacy that goes with the past memories the narrator speaks of.