Before Reading
Piano
Poem by D. H. Lawrence
Fifteen
Poem by William Stafford
Tonight I Can Write . . . /
Puedo Escribir Los Versos . . .
Poem by Pablo Neruda
Which MEMORIES last?
RL 4 Analyze the cumulative
impact of specific word choices
on meaning. RL 5 Analyze an
author’s choices concerning how
to structure a text. RL 10 Read
and comprehend poems.
Think back to a moment from your past that evokes powerful
feelings in you. Why has this memory made such a lasting
impression? Was it the person you shared the experience with, or
the activity itself? In the poems that follow, three speakers recall
moments that have had a lasting impact.
QUICKWRITE In a short paragraph, describe a particular memory.
Why is this recollection special? What feelings do you remember?
Include sensory details that help present a clear picture.
802
Meet the Authors
D. H. Lawrence
text analysis: sound devices
In the poems that follow, the poets use rhyme and other sound
devices to convey rhythm and meaning:
• Assonance—the repetition of vowel sounds in words that
don’t rhyme
We could find the end of a road, meet
the sky on out Seventeenth. . . .
• Consonance—the repetition of consonant sounds within and
at the ends of words
Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me;
Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see
• Repetition—a sound, word, phrase, or line that is repeated
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.
She loved me, sometimes I loved her too.
Consonance
Writer of Experience
Although impoverished during
his childhood, D. H. Lawrence
nce
found great pleasure in
learning and culture, a love
ve
of which was instilled by his
mother. Lawrence’s confessional,
essional,
earnest style is illustrated
d in the
poem “Piano.” He wrote itt in
memory of his mother.
William Stafford
1914–1993
Record examples of the various sound devices that establish in
a chart like the one below.
Assonance
1885–1930
Repetition
“Piano”
“Fifteen”
“Tonight I Can
Write . . .”
reading skill: understand line breaks
End-stopped lines of poetry end at a normal speech pause, as in
these lines from “Tonight I Can Write . . .”:
The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.
This emphasizes the line endings and makes a reader view
each line as a complete unit of meaning.
Enjambed lines run on without a natural pause, as in “Fifteen”:
South of the bridge on Seventeenth
I found back of the willows one summer
day a motorcycle with engine running
Enjambment can create a tension and momentum until the
thought is complete. As you read each poem, think about how
line breaks affect rhythm and meaning.
Review: Make Inferences
Complete the activities in your Reader/Writer Notebook.
Remembering the Past
William Stafford remembered,
red, growing up
in Kansas, being “surrounded
ed by
songs and stories and poems,
ms,
and lyrical splurges of excited
ed
talk. . . .” These memories
eventually became the stuff
ff of
his poetry. “Fifteen” is part of a
collection of poems that recall
call
his past.
Pablo Neruda
1904–1973
Boy Wonder
Pablo Neruda was drawn to poetry at an early
age, even though
gh his working-class family
scoffed at his literary
terary ambitions. By
age 20 he had achieved literary
stardom with the
he publication of
Twenty Love Poems
ems and a Song
of Despair. The book chronicles
a passionate love
ve story, from the
couple’s first meeting
eeting to eventual
breakup. “Tonight
ght I Can Write”
is the 20th poem.
m.
Authors Online
Go to thinkcentral.com. KEYWORD: HML10-803
803
The Spinet (1902), Thomas Wilmer Dewing. Oil on wood, 151/2˝ × 20˝. Smithsonian American Art
Museum, Washington, D.C. Photo © Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C./Art
Resource, New York.
P iano
D. H. Lawrence
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.
5
10
804
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 cozy parlour, the tinkling piano
our guide. a
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.
unit 7: the language of poetry
a
SOUND DEVICES
Reread lines 5–9
aloud. Where can you
find assonance and
consonance in this
stanza?
Fifteen
William Stafford
5
South of the bridge on Seventeenth
I found back of the willows one summer
day a motorcycle with engine running
as it lay on its side, ticking over
slowly in the high grass. I was fifteen.
b
10
I admired all that pulsing gleam, the
shiny flanks, the demure headlights
fringed where it lay; I led it gently
to the road and stood with that
companion, ready and friendly. I was fifteen.
15
We could find the end of a road, meet
the sky on out Seventeenth. I thought about
hills, and patting the handle got back a
confident opinion. On the bridge we indulged
a forward feeling, a tremble. I was fifteen.
20
Thinking, back farther in the grass I found
the owner, just coming to, where he had flipped
over the rail. He had blood on his hand, was pale—
I helped him walk to his machine. He ran his hand
over it, called me good man, roared away.
b
LINE BREAKS
Notice how Stafford
continues a thought
or sentence from one
line to the next. How
does this enjambment
affect the way you
read the lines?
I stood there, fifteen.
piano / fifteen
805
Tonight I Can Write . . .
Pablo Neruda
Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
Write, for example, ‘The night is shattered
and the blue stars shiver in the distance.’
The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.
5
Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.
c
What impact is created
by the repetition of
“Tonight I can write the
saddest lines”?
Through nights like this one I held her in my arms.
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.
10
SOUND DEVICES
She loved me, sometimes I loved her too.
How could one not have loved her great still eyes.
Tonight I can write the saddest lines. c
To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.
To hear the immense night, still more immense without her.
And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.
15
What does it matter that my love could not keep her.
The night is shattered and she is not with me.
This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.
My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.
20
RL 5
d
d
The line is the core unit
of a poem. Line length
is an essential element
of a poem’s meaning
and rhythm. Some endstopped lines express
complete thoughts, while
other enjambed lines
run on, their thoughts
completed in one or more
lines. Find examples
of end-stopped and
enjambed lines in the
poem. What effects
do these different line
lengths create?
My sight searches for her as though to go to her.
My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.
The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.
I no longer love her, that’s certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.
25
Another’s. She will be another’s. Like my kisses before.
Her voice. Her bright body. Her infinite eyes.
I no longer love her, that’s certain, but maybe I love her.
Love is so short, forgetting is so long.
30
Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms
my soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.
Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer
and these the last verses that I write for her. e
Translated by W. S. Merwin
806
unit 7: the language of poetry
LINE LENGTH
e
MAKE INFERENCES
Reread lines 27–32. Do
you think the speaker still
loves the woman? Why or
why not?