Piano

Piano

The use of gentle vocabulary, e.g softly, balances the effect of his mothers gentle playing of the piano.
1. Words like "poised" are used to give a positive idea of a mother who is graceful.
  1. These indicate an atmosphere of ease.
Use of sibilance ('S' sounds) produces a soft and gentle atmosphere.
Stanza 1 is very calm and gentle yet stanza 2 is quite dark and very mature to show the contrast from child to adult. This is called oxymoron - opposite for effect.
He acknowledges he is an adult but weeps like a child which is irony.
The poems tone chances from a very sweet, nostalgic feeling to very mature but also resentment. This causes the reader to feel sorry for him because of the amount of resentment he is feeling.
In a sense we go on a journey with him through the poem and the yearning for his childhood.
"In spite of myself" suggests the poet is trying to prevent reliving memories.
"tinkling piano" is onomatopoeia
The regular stanzas, all end-stopped, suggest that all his memories are neatly contained.
The first stanza juxtapositions the present and the past tightly together. In the flashback, there is a use of present tense which suggests that the past is just as vivid as the present to him.

Resource summary

	Created by Georgia Lowe about 9 years ago