D.H. Lawrence: Life, *Lady Chatterley's Lover*, Poetry

David Herbert Richards Lawrence (1885-1930)

• D.H. Lawrence was an English novelist, essayist, and poet.
• Born in Nottinghamshire to a mining family, his working-class origins shaped his critique of industrialization's dehumanizing effects.
• He earned a scholarship to Nottingham High School and trained as a teacher.
• Lawrence eloped to Europe with the wife of his university lecturer.
• He traveled extensively, eventually settling in northern Italy due to tuberculosis.
• It was in Italy that he penned his famous novel Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928), known for its explicit content.

Background

• Lawrence's mother, Lydia, a former pupil teacher, valued education as a means of liberating the working class.
• She worked in a lace factory to support her family.
• She encouraged Lawrence's academic and artistic pursuits.

Summary of the Poem

• The poem captures an involuntary memory of the poet’s mother sparked by a woman's singing.
• The poet is reminded of his mother singing to him as he sat under her piano.
• Despite attempts to stay present, the memory overwhelms him, transporting him to the past.
• He is overcome with sadness for his lost childhood and deceased mother.

Message of the Poem

• Music has the power to trigger involuntary memories of great happiness, which in turn highlights the sense of loss.

Analysis of the Poem

• The title "Piano" signifies the instrument his mother played, serving as the memory's focal point, and its ability to express emotion.
• "Piano" also indicates a soft and heartfelt musical direction.
• The opening word "Softly" echoes the musical meaning of the title, describing the music's sound.
• The setting "In the dusk" creates a melancholic atmosphere, symbolizing a dark moment and the pivotal point between past and present.
• The woman singing is "to me," creating a juxtaposition with his mother's singing and sound becoming a memory trigger.
• The line "Taking me back down the Vista of years" uses a visual metaphor to depict a vivid return to the past.
• The phrase "A child sitting under the piano" is used to make the memory more relatable.
• The boy's position under the piano places him in an intimate space with his mother and the instrument.
• "The boom of the tingling strings" uses onomatopoeia and personification to convey the exciting sounds and vibrations.
• The line "pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings" shows the affection of the child and intimacy of the moment.
• The mother's "poised" feet control the piano's pedals, influencing the duration of notes.
• The phrase "In spite of myself" shows the poet’s resistance to the memory.
• "The insidious mastery of song" describes the music's cunning power over him, betraying him to his past.
• "The heart of me weeps" uses a metaphor to express the depth of his longing.
• He longs to "belong To the old Sunday evenings at home," highlighting the comfort and shelter of those times.
• The line "the tinkling piano our guide" depicts the soft, pleasing sound leading him back.
• "So, now" signifies the consequence of his emotional struggle and returns the reader to the present moment.
• "It is vain for the singer to burst into clamour With the great black piano apassionato" means the singer's emotional performance is futile.
• "The glamour Of childish days is upon me" describes the enchanting power of childhood memories.
• "My manhood is cast down in the flood of remembrance" shows the overwhelming impact of the memory.
• "I weep like a child for the past" uses a simile to convey uncontrollable sorrow for a lost time.