Edexcel IGCSE Poetry Anthology Texts - Piano

Form/ structure of poem:

- Three four line stanzas

- Uses quatrains - the regular structure evokes the shape of a hymn and has a musical verse quality to it - like a lullaby or childhood song

- Rhyme scheme — AABB (rhyming couplets) — creates a regular sound pattern, perhaps a soothing and comforting repetition of sound, again evoking a lullaby

- Non-linear chronology - authentic sense of nostalgia

- Each stanza is end stopped - distinct and separate as they are each their own sentence in the first two stanzas and two sentences for the third stanza.

- Many commas which disrupt the flow of lines, forcing the reader to take short breaths often - breathlessness and waves of memory, each individual image is coming to him - fragmentation of memory

Themes of poem:

- Nostalgia, emotion, longing

- Family, childhood

- Masculinity

- Power of music

Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me;

Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see [stanza 1]

- Softly - gentle atmosphere

- Sibilance (not that prominent in this line, yet, still there, and present throughout the poem) - soothing

- Ambiguous - only a woman is mentioned - we don't know what the writer's relation to this person is

- Semi colon at the end of the line - represents a shift in time - the writer has been taken back to his childhood just by listening to this random woman singing - disrupts smooth rhythm of poem

- Vista - He is now reflecting on his childhood - comforting, happy

A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling strings

And pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings. [stanza 1]

- Boom - onomatopoeia - emphasises the volume of the piano, still remembers just how great and loud it sounded from years ago

- Internal rhyme - 'tingling strings' (plus the rhyming couplets i suppose) - evoking the music quality - rhythmic, placing emphasis on those words

- Poised - sense of grace and elegance, beauty and respect for the singer

- This random woman has evoked such strong memories for the writer of him playing the piano while his mother sings - strong sense of longing - some random woman reminds him of his mother lols

In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song

Betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong [stanza 2]

- Bittersweet - negative emotive language contrasts with the gentle atmosphere painted in the stanza before

- This silbilance now does not have as much of a soothing sense as before due to the negative language, and is perhaps more sinister - like a snake hissing

- Personification - 'the heart of me weeps' - great sense of grief + longing

To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside

And hymns in the cosy parlour, the tinkling piano our guide. [stanza 2]

- Much more comforting language in this half of the stanza than the last half - bittersweet

- Sense of community - spending time with family

- Hymns - religious connotations - also, a chance to spend time with family/as a community

- onomatopoeia - 'tinkling' - gentle, soft, angelic - like a little bell charm or chime or something, contrasts with the BOOM that the piano made beforehand

- Metaphor - 'the .... piano our guide' - Showing the depths of the mother and child's relationship, bringing them closer together

So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamour

With the great black piano appassionato. The glamour [stanza 3]

- Crescendo effect - the stanzas prior have built up to this very passionnate, strong stanza - beforehand the stanzas were relatively gentle and soothing

- Emotive Language - highlights passion + volume of piano - again, crescendo

- Plosives - violent, forceful sounds - passion

Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast

Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past. [stanza 3]

- 'flood of remembrance' - figurative language - connotations of a flood include uncontrollability, destruction - emphasises overwhelming, powering nature of memories

- Loss of masculinity - 'I weep like a child' - simile - writer feels vulnerable and fragile, longs for the past to experience precious moments with his mother