of nostalgia as emasculating, as he says that his "manhood / Is cast down in the flood of remembrance," and he is reduced to a child.

Another important theme is the power of music. The speaker's memories of his childhood are triggered by a piece of music he hears on the piano and the accompanying singing of the pianist. The music is so powerful as to transport him back to a different time, even "in spite of [him]self."

In terms of the style of the poem, it is written in the first person. This firstly emphasizes how personal these memories and experiences are for the speaker and secondly makes it easier for us, the readers, to empathize with the speaker. The poem is also written in the present tense ("a woman is singing to me"), which perhaps helps the speaker's memories to feel more immediate.

Lawrence also writes this poem with a strict rhyme scheme consisting of rhyming couplets ("me/see, strings/sings"). This adds to the musical rhythm of the poem and in turn reflects the significance of the piano music to the speaker.

D. H. Lawrence’s poem “Piano” illustrates the use of imagery.  Through the images, both visual and auditory,  the reader acknowledges the nostalgic mood of the poem. Written in 1918, the poem expresses the long held belief that a man should not cry; yet, this man cannot hold back his tears.

Speaker

The point of view of the poem is first person with a man [possibly the poet] as the narrator.  His portrayal of the events he describes is both complex and revealingly simple.

Form

• The poem has three stanzas. Each stanza is a quatrain.  The lines are coupled so that every two lines rhyme. 
• Every stanza follows the same pattern: the first two lines provide a scene of the present with the last two lines comparing the present to the past.
• His vocabulary and diction are easy to follow and conversational in style.

Poetic Devices

The poet builds its impact with imagery.  There are two picture painted by the poet: the woman in the present singing and playing the piano; and  the mother playing the piano and the boy underneath at her feet.

Metaphor—the man’s memory of his childhood is compared to a vista, which mean a panoramic view or landscape

Simile—When the man’s emotions overwhelm him, he compares his emotional state to a child. 

Summary

1st stanza

In the present, a woman is singing to the speaker which reminds him of a time in his childhood.  The poet sets the scene using the words softly with the time at dusk.  As he hears the music, he sees himself sitting under the piano as his mother plays and sings.  This is a happy time because the mother smiles at her child.  The sounds are now booming and tingling…as he listens and watches his mother, he touches and presses her feet.  The mother does not mind this interference.

2nd stanza

The speaker does not really want to feel this experience at the time. He describes the impact of the song as sinister because it takes him back [whether he wants to go or not]  to a nostalgic time in his life---a beloved time.  Within himself, he cries for the time on the Sundays when it was winter outside.  The family would sit in the warm living room and sing with the piano as the leader of their tunes.

3rd stanza

So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamor
With the great black piano appassionato. The glamour
Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast
Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past.

Because of his happy memories, the present day singer’s song has changed from soft to noisy with the large, ebony grand piano.  The speaker’s memories call him to another place when he was a child. As a sophisticated man, he does not want to show his emotions; however, he can no longer restrain himself, and he cries for the child that he was. Reluctantly, the speaker gives himself over to these memories.

Themes

Nostalgia for another time and place---sometimes music, sounds, and places take a person back in his memory. Often, the recollection makes the person go back to a pleasant time; however, the memory make bring the pain of the loss of the childhood or the loss of the people in the memory. 

Man versus Child---The child loved his mother and enjoyed the time spent under the piano with the family singing and laughing.  On the other hand, the speaker fears the loss of his masculinity when he yields to the memory’s emotions. This issue is one that a man faces in today’s society; however, men are beginning to be more comfortable in showing their true feelings.

'Piano' written by D.H. Lawrence is a nostalgic poem. The speaker is listening to his lover sing for him in tune to the piano. The music of the piano serves as a guide who taking the poet's hand takes him for a journey down the memory lane, as is potrayed when he says:

Taking me back down the vista of years

The poet remembers his innocent childhood when during Sundays in winter he would sit inside his cosy parlour, with his mother's feet in his lap listening to her play the piano and sing hymns. Thus, music becomes not only magical but also divine. The speaker feels guilty and angry at himself, because as a man he is supposed to have better control over his feelings, but in the conflict between past and present the past wins, and the speaker starts weeping. He also feels guilty since instead of listening to the young woman who is singing passionately for him, he remembers his own mother's song. The speaker's tears bridges the gap between adulthood and childhood.

Poet D. H. Lawrence's aim in the poem "Piano” was to convey to his readers’ the joys of childhood. The narrator in this poem talks of being transported in his mind to a time when he would sit comfortably and joyously under the piano in his home. Now a mature man, the narrator reminisces about times past when he sat under the piano “pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings.”

This is a happy memory. However, this man is fighting this memory somewhat. He knows that this is a time long gone and that he cannot create this time again. It hurts him to reminisce here, so he tries to temper these memories that are welling up in him.

He knows if these memories take hold of him he will long for this time with his mother and his family once again and it will be painful as probably many of these people are not around for him to enjoy life with anymore. Therefore, it is just easier in his mind to suppress these memories.

Nonetheless, he can’t. He says that “In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song Betrays me back,” He wants the safe, peaceful Sunday evenings of his youth and the piano and the soft hymns that were very comforting to him.

The narrator, this adult man, now gives in to this tidal wave of memories. He is crying for days of old, his childhood. Now, he is not thinking as a man does – he is thinking as a child. He is fully steeped (in his mind) in the memories of his youth. He desires this way of life again, living wonderfully with his mother as he is soothed by the piano and the voice of his mother who is happy as she embraces life fully and sings.