Piano Flashcards

regular line length

comfort/regularity of memories

enjambement

flood of memory

Sibilance of 'pressing the small poised feet.....'

creates soothing tone + he felt comfort and soothed by being around mother

plosives of 'black piano appasionato'

hammering of strings - mirrors overwhelming crescendo of emotions - pain and desperation

figurative language of 'flood of remembrance'

memories are unstoppable + he is slightly afraid of revisiting them/ he's drowning in sadness.

simile of 'I weep like a child'

loss of masculinity/ pressure of being a man - feels 'Boys don't cry' / he'll never be a child again.

indefinite articles of ' a child'

seperated from fantasy of being kid/ not a kid anymore

onomatapier of 'boom of tingling strings'

memory is very life like for him

caesura after 'black piano appasionato'

sudden jolt back to reality.

semantic field of a traitor of 'insidious...betrays'

it is uncomfortable to look back and he doesn't want to.

contrast of 'winter outside....cosy parlour'

emphasises the security and comfort family provides

personification of 'piano as our guide'

shows how simple and uncomplicated his life was back then

personification of 'the heart of me weeps'

great sadness deep within him.

Lyric poem

brings back memories as piano played

Volta between "our guide...so now"

Switch between past and present

rhyme scheme of abbccdd

mimics rhythm of a song + steady and predictable

trochaic metre

a accented syllable followed by an unaccented one = longing to return - steady predictable music which evokes childhood memories

3 quatrains of rhyming couplets

comfort of memory