Piano Analysis Life moves on, cherish the past but create your own future. In “Piano” by H D Lawrence the speaker reminisces about being a child listening to his mother singing while he is under the piano playing with her feet, this is a discomforting memory to him that is triggered by hearing another woman’s singing. Through the use of diction, Lawrence coveys, that memories can be bittersweet. When talking about a woman singing, the man states that it was “taking him back down the vista of years.” This reveals that he longs to be a child again when life was easier and when he was with his mother. The word choice shows that he is aware that his childhood is now and will forever be just a memory. He also says how the song is beautiful but it
Living in the past is something a lot of people are guilty of. Everyone looks back on their past at the wonderful things they have done. The poem “Old Men Playing Basketball” by B. H. Fairchild and the song “Glory Days” by Bruce Springsteen share this quality. While they are similar in subject matter, time, and theme, they differ in point of view, tone, repetition, and the use of allusion. In Fairchild’s poem, he wonders if the old men are thinking about their youth. In Springsteen’s song, he talks to two friends who are reliving their glory days.
“My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke sparks differing opinions within the minds of many. Roethke was influenced greatly by his experiences as a young boy. For instance, his uncle and father both died when he was the age of fourteen. “My Papa’s Waltz” is written in remembrance of his father after this dreadful occurrence. The author’s use of imagery brings light to the his adoration for his father. Notably, his way of stringing together ideas reinforces the fond memories they shared. Roethke’s captivating choice of words supports his purpose to make known the love he has for this man. While the subject of “My Papa’s Waltz” has spurred passionate academic debate from professors, scholars, and students alike, the imagery, syntax, and diction of the poem clearly support the interpretation that Theodore Roethke writes “My Papa’s Waltz” to bring attention to the loving relationship he had with his father.
From the creation of harmonies to singing to instruments, music has been an abstract form of human expression. Although an auditory collection of pitches and volumes, musicians can manipulate the same notes and bring them alive for their audiences. The true emotion and energy that’s felt in music really comes from the player as feelings are transferred to and through the listener. This interaction between performer and the house is catharsis, the complete release of strong repressed emotions. Thanks to the musician, music has the ability to grasp people and cause them to sense emotions and feelings without lyrics or images even being necessary. Although it’s believed we can only hear with our ears, something about music makes it emotionally if not physically tangible. In James Baldwin’s short story “Sonny’s Blues,” a narrator certainly unaware of the impact of music invites himself to experience jazz for the first time. Baldwin uses the final scene of his story to argue that music has an effect on those who are able to experience it. Baldwin does this in one single moment by letting the fixed, practical minded, “well-intentioned” narrator experience catharsis from jazz as his growing, free-spirited brother communicates with him through jazz.
The narrator, a teacher in Harlem, has escaped the ghetto, creating a stable and secure life for himself despite the destructive pressures that he sees destroying so many young blacks. He sees African American adolescents discovering the limits placed on them by a racist society at the very moment when they are discovering their abilities. He tells the story of his relationship with his younger brother, Sonny. That relationship has moved through phases of separation and return. After their parents’ deaths, he tried and failed to be a father to Sonny. For a while, he believed that Sonny had succumbed to the destructive influences of Harlem life. Finally, however, they achieved a reconciliation in which the narrator came to understand the value and the importance of Sonny’s need to be a jazz pianist.
Happenings and the memories they bring about cause people’s emotions to be evoked, and notebooks are one way in which they can be recorded. In “On Keeping a Notebook”, an excerpt written by Joan Didion, the narrator talks about keeping a notebook that simply describe the main acts to express her feelings caused by it rather than recounting it. A notebook and its constituents represent the person’s character and denote the significant effect a certain occurrence has on them. Didion uses numerous rhetorical strategies to suitably reinforce her point and to appeal to her readers.
Throughout Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, there are many details that help give the reader a deeper, more profound, meaning of the book's intended purpose. Krakauer is one of the most renowned American writers, publishing many books focused specifically focused on nature, and people’s struggles in nature. Through much of the book, Krakauer incorporates many examples of diction and imagery to help the reader grasp the essence of the book. By using a wide range of literary techniques, Krakauer is able to communicate the events that transpired throughout the book.
Many people look back on memories with a pleasant slant. A backpacker may love to go to the mountains, but every time that person ventures out he encounters a blizzard. The weather is not always conducive to the backpacker and can cause great discomfort. However, when the hiker returns to his normal routine he usually forgets about the bad experience so that he can continue loving the mountains and happily plan his next adventure. Similarly, Theodore Roethke's, "My Papa's Waltz" is a poem about a man who tries to make a horrible event into something much more pleasant to think about. The speaker seems to be remembering back to his childhood and finally uncovers dark memories about his father.
When Sonny plays the piano his brother “heard what he had gone through.. I saw my mother’s face again, and felt for the first time” (275) The narrator is reminded of the struggles he went through and relates back to
In August Wilson’s Piano Lesson Berniece struggles with the past of her family and the violence that is within her family. She de-contextualizes the piano by not telling Maretha about her relatives, whose images are carved into the piano and keeping her in the dark when it comes to her family and the past. With Berniece struggling to keep Boy Willie from selling the piano for land she slowly starts to realize that maybe the uplift that the family needs is just remembrance of their family and their past. The piano is symbol for the legacy or past of relatives and by playing the piano at the end of the play shows that remembering your family’s past or carrying on their Legacy in the smallest way shows that wherever they are that they’re rejoiced
Children are often expected to forgive their parents for any mistake their parents may have made, however forgiving and forgetting are not the same thing. How parents nurture their children has a significant role in those children’s lives. Children may have forgiven, but forgetting is a not always as easy or even possible. Theodore Roethke’s poem “My papa’s waltz” and Lucille Clifton’s “forgiving my father” recalls the speakers’ respective childhoods and treatment by their father. The poem shows that even through time it is not as always easy to forgive and memories make people incapable of letting go. Lucille Clifton’s poem “forgiving my father,” a daughter recollects the animosity she has for her father. She is here to collect for all his wrongdoings not just as a father but a horrible husband. Theodore Roethke’s poem “My papa’s waltz” leaves the reader to interpret his feelings through “a waltz” - dance. It is unclear whether there was love between Roethke and his father. However, the reader understands there was fear. Clifton’s “Forgiving my Father” uses a more direct approach to let the reader knows her thoughts towards her father; both poems show that forgiveness is required to move forward. However, one never forgets.
The personal Narrative “Music Tonight” by Stephen Policoff is unusual because it is all about the daughter, but written from the father’s perspective. I was at first confused as to who the transformation would happen to, and it seems that both the father and daughter experience transformations within the piece, but because it is told from the father’s point of view we will focus on him being the character. At first, this story made me feel somber because I was sympathizing with the daughter, however after reading the entire story I realized that this story is not meant to be morose but rather to celebrate the joyous effect that music has on Anna. Simply because she was diagnosed with a neurological degenerative disease I was beginning to
Writer, Crystal Wilkinson, in her article, “Dig If You Will The Picture,” recounts her younger painful days and how she utilized music during that time to cope. Wilkinson’s argument is that music, specifically Prince’s, had the ability to pull her through all the terrible things she encountered in life and helped her gain back the control that was stolen from her. She conveys her argument by using a descriptive style that shows in her word choice and tone, imagery, and structure of the article.
James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” conveys how music serves as a form of communication, both at a small and large scale. Charting the development of the communication between Sonny and his brother allows us to view how the unnamed brother fails to meet Sonny at his emotional level by not understanding his pain. I argue that the text introduces Sonny as someone who “has never been talkative” to set the foundation for his growth from being voiceless to speaking both vibrantly and effortlessly through music (Baldwin 113). Over the course of the text, the unnamed brother begins to listen to Sonny to discover the connection between music and emotion. Therefore, the text argues that music is a crucial mechanism to communicate with one another—more specifically
In “Piano” Lawrence his subject matter is when he was a child, his mother would play the piano and he would he by her feet. As Lawrence state “A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the
In the next four lines of the poem, the speaker talks about how he feels as he imagines his childhood. Even though he is in front of this woman who is singing and playing music, “in spite of” himself, his present state, this “insidious mastery of song betrays” the speaker back “till” he “weeps” to go back to his childhood. The guileful dominance of the song the woman is singing beguiles him to think about his past experience. His heart “weeps to belong to the old Sunday evenings at home.” He really misses the time when he was little, and he used to hear his mother playing piano every Sunday evening. He wants to go back to his childhood and belong to that time again.