Alice Walker The Piano Poem

The structure of this poem is written in free verse, adding a sense of remembrance. Walker uses relatively simple language to discuss relatively simple themes. Walker doesn 't use a vast range of vocabulary in this poem neither does she use poetic devices.

In the poem “Piano” Lawrence talks about how a women singing to him triggers memories of him mother and how it affects him in his life. The first stanza is about how he sits listening to music being played and drifts back into a memory of childhood. The first line in this stanza “softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me” softly sets a gentle atmosphere, it is calming. In the opening of the poem, Lawrence doesn 't name his mother he just writes “woman” which is telling us that the memory is distant and unclear. The third line of this stanza is referring to a child “A child sitting under the

The last stanza is about how the memory affects him. The first line is “So not it is vain for the singer to burst into clamour” this tells us that these days are truly lost. He can no longer be brightened by the music of his childhood. The third line is “of childish days are upon me, my manhood is cast” in this line, Lawrence feels like a child again. In the last line of the poem “down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past” Lawrence 's manhood has been lost in the ‘flood of remembrance’ a flood shows how strong the memory is. Ironically, when his manhood is lost he weeps like a child.

“Poem at Thirty-Nine” and “Piano” has a different approach on the theme of remembrance. “Piano” which is by Lawrence is a more negative and emotional. This remembrance makes Lawrence very sentimental. Piano is written in AABB rhyme whereas Poem at Thirty-Nine is written in free verse. The tone of Piano is negative and the tone of Poem at Thirty-Nine has a positive tone, although Walker is talking about losing her father. The theme of remembrance in Poem at Thirty-Nine is about love and teaching of her