Compare and contrast Piano and Poem at Thirty-Nine D.H Lawrence’s Piano and Alice Walker’s Poem at Thirty-Nine are both about nostalgic remembrance and childhood memories. Poem at Thirty-Nine focuses on the persona reflecting on her life and childhood, bringing in a sense of happiness and grief as she acknowledges how much her father has taught her about life whereas Piano highlights the persona’s poignancy when thinking of his mother and childhood. Both the poems take a different approach on theme of death and loss even though they are both about a parent. Piano is negative and emotional due to the fact that D.H Lawrence uses strong emotive language to convey nostalgia and sentimentality. This is shown through his choice of words such as ‘weep’ and ‘betray’. The persona …show more content…
On the other hand, Poem at Thirty-Nine adopts a free verse as her style is more conversational and allows her to express her thoughts. Both the poems use enjambment to make memories flow rapidly and allow a stream of thought. In piano, it creates a dramatic effect since he cannot control his tears and emotions anymore. They also use present tense to show what they are doing and how their past has affected their current stage. Piano and Poem at Thirty-Nine both demonstrate feminist views by using juxtaposition. In Poem at Thirty-Nine, the juxtaposition of ‘woman’ and ‘chopping wood’ since these tasks were considered to be done only by men. On the contrary, Walker is very proud of her self as it shows she is independent and strong as she mirrors her father’s qualities. In Piano, the juxtaposition of ‘manhood’ and ‘weep’ shows that the persona is emotional and it was not considered an attribute of a man. In contrast with Poem at Thirty-Nine, he is not proud of his actions and feels shameful as his ‘manhood is cast