Piano, a Poem by David Herbert Richards Lawrence

In celebration of National Piano Month, we are featuring the poem Piano, by D. H. Lawrence (David Herbert Richards).

According to Wikipedia, David Herbert Richards Lawrence (September 11, 1885 – March 2, 1930) was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter who published as D. H. Lawrence. His collected works, among other things, represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation. In them, some of the issues Lawrence explores are emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct.

Piano

By D. H. Lawrence (David Herbert Richards)

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

    Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see

    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.

    In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song

    Betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong

    To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside

    And hymns in the cosy parlour, the tinkling piano our guide.

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

    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.

*This poem is found in public domain.