Piano

Question 1

‘A’ child

Answer 1

Indefinite article- as if he’s observing himself as a child in his memory

Question 2

A child sitting ‘under’ the piano

Answer 2

Preposition- symbolises his mothers protection and how use was a dominant maternal presence in his life

Question 3

In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song

Answer 3

Sibilance- becomes harsher, emphasises resistance to remembering his past, together with the adjective ‘insidious’ which implies that they memory is harmful or upsetting

Question 4

‘Betrays’ me back

Answer 4

Verb- music has betrayed the speaker as he doesn’t wan to remember as it upsets him but it’s too sting for him to resist

Question 5

My manhood is cast
I wept like a child

Answer 5

Crying makes the speaker fell emasculated- when poem was written displays of emotion especially crying were not considered masculine almost like speaker despises himself for his emotional weakness

Question 6

What is used in lines 8&9?

Answer 6

Caesura- it slows down the pace of the poem, it contrasts the present with the past, women singing with his childhood