Compare and Contrast “Piano” and “At Castle Boterel”
2/4/02 Compare and Contrast "Piano" Andrew Milburn and "At Castle Boterel"
"Piano" and "At Castle Boterel" are both poems about the past and looking back in time. The poems are both about looking back so it is very easy to relate the two. In this essay I will be looking at the many comparisons and contrasts that can be found throughout the two poems.
I will look at the comparisons first of all. Both poems focus on a person's memory of the past. In "Piano" we see the speaker's memory of his childhood whereas in "At Castle Boterel" the speaker's memory is of the love he once shared with a girl, his wife. This leads onto another comparison. This is that the general themes of each poem are the same. The general themes being that both speakers talk about their relationship with a woman.
Another comparison is that both poems are concerned with time and how what has happened is lost and it cannot happen again. "Piano" talks about the time when the speaker was a little boy at home. Lawrence writes,
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. (Lines 3-4, Stanza 1)
The speaker has grown up and is now in adulthood. He cannot return to childhood. From line 4 we can clearly see that the relationship that the speaker has is between him and his mother. In "At Castle Boterel" the view that the past is irretrievable is about Hardy and his wife, Emma. Hardy writes,
Primeval rocks form the road's steep border, And much have they faced there, first and last, Of the transitory in Earth's long order; But what they record in colour and cast
Is -- that we two passed. (Stanza 5)
Hardy says that the primeval rocks that have been there for millions of years and would be there for millions of years to come, recorded that he and Emma passed by. Only the rocks and he would remember because he can't go back to that very time so he has to have a memory.
The atmosphere and the mood of the poems is the same. Both poems are written so they seem sad, regretful, reflective, dreamy and gloomy. Lawrence creates this mood by writing,
In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song
Betrays ...
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Hardy says that the primeval rocks that have been there for millions of years and would be there for millions of years to come, recorded that he and Emma passed by. Only the rocks and he would remember because he can't go back to that very time so he has to have a memory.
The atmosphere and the mood of the poems is the same. Both poems are written so they seem sad, regretful, reflective, dreamy and gloomy. Lawrence creates this mood by writing,
In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song
Betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong.
(Lines 1-2, Stanza 2)
The words such as "insidious", "betrays" and "weeps" all help to create the gloomy atmosphere for the reader. The language that Hardy uses portrays exactly the same mood as the one in "Piano". Hardy writes,
I look and see it there, shrinking, shrinking,
I look back at it amid the rain
For the very last time; for my sand is sinking,
And I shall traverse old love's domain
Never again. (Stanza 7)
The words such as "shrinking", "rain" and "sinking" all create the gloomy and depressing mood and atmosphere for the reader.
Another comparison is that both poets use very strong and clear imagery to clearly show the reader how they feel. In stanza 1, verse 2, in "Piano" Lawrence writes, "Taking me back down the vista of years". Here Lawrence makes it easier for the reader to understand the age of the speaker and the length of time that is being talked about. Lawrence emphasises this by creating vivid images for the reader. Hardy uses the dame technique in "At Castle Boterel". In stanza 7, line 3, Hardy writes, "For the very last time; for my sand is sinking," Hardy leaves us with the image of a sand timer here, signalling that his life is coming to an end. By using imagery, Hardy reinforces what he is trying to stay in an image and this is very easy for the reader to see. The reader can see that Hardy's life is coming to an end.
My final contrast is that in both poems the concluding stanzas leave the reader with the idea and impression that time cannot be reversed and once it has past it is lost forever. In the final stanza of "Piano" Lawrence writes,
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.
Here the speaker starts to weep and the reader is made aware of how emotional the speaker is because the past is lost. The happy times with his mother at home are gone.
In the final stanza of "At Castle Boterel" Hardy writes,
I look and see it there, shrinking, shrinking,
I look back at it amid the rain
For the very last time; for my sand is sinking,
And I shall traverse old love's domain
Never again.
In this stanza Hardy says that time is irreversible and time has run out for him. He cannot go back to the happy times with Emma and time has moved on. He is coming to the end of his time, "And I shall traverse old love's domain never again."
The first contrast that you notice is the length of the poems. "Piano" by Lawrence is only three stanzas long whereas "At Castle Boterel" by Hardy is seven stanzas long. The speaker in "Piano" can only remember a little of the past and this is why the poem is shorter. The shortness of the poem may also signify the amount of time that has elapsed since his the memories originally happened and the age of the speaker. Hardy is much older than Lawrence. "At Castle Boterel" is much longer because Hardy talks about his wife and the love they shared so it is very lucid. Hardy has lots of memories but this one is very clear and he retells it in quite a lot of detail for the reader so they can picture they setting and what happened that day. The time elapsed form that memory to the present time is much greater in this poem than in "Piano" too.
Another contrast is that in "Piano" the speaker is quite reluctant to look back at his past but in "At Castle Boterel" the speaker voluntarily looks back at his memories. In "Piano" the speaker is reluctant to look back at his memories because he knows that time is irreversible and he will never be able to return to the happy times he spent at home with his mother. He doesn't want to be reminded because he will become unhappy and very emotional at this realisation. In "At Castle Boterel" Hardy does not mind looking back because he remembers having a great time with his love Emma. He wants to be able to remember the times he spent with her because now that she has gone all he has left are memories of the past. Hardy wants to hold on to these and he lets the readers know this. That is why he voluntarily looks back.
Another contrast is that in "Piano" the speaker regresses from adulthood into childhood and in "At Castle Boterel" the speaker remains in adulthood throughout the whole poem. The speaker in "Piano" regresses to childhood because he his desperate to be a child again and be with his mother. He longs for the past to return but it will not. In "At Castle Boterel" there is no need for Hardy to regress to childhood because his memories of him and Emma together are adulthood memories. That is why Hardy does not regress to childhood and Lawrence has to.
The rhyme schemes of both poems differ. The rhyme scheme in "Piano" is as follows,
Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me; a
Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see a
A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling strings b
And pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings. b
This rhyme scheme is quite straightforward and very regular. It is quite short as well where only two lines rhyme together (rhyming couplets). The rhyme scheme is straightforward and quite short because the speaker's memory of his past is short and very straightforward. This is because it is of a mother's relationship with her son.
The rhyme scheme in "At Castle Boterel" is as follows,
I look and see it there, shrinking, shrinking, a
I look back at it amid the rain b
For the very last time; for my sand is sinking, a
And I shall traverse old love's domain b
Never again. a
The rhyme scheme here is longer and more complicated and uncommon. This is because Hardy's memories are very clear so he tells us a lot about them and so the poem is long. Hardy's memories are personal too. Whereas nearly everyone can empathise with the speaker in "Piano" not everybody knows how Hardy and Emma got on together.
I thought "Piano" by Lawrence was a very moving, emotional poem about a person's relationship with their mother. It was very easy to sympathise with the speaker in the poem. I liked the poem but thought it was too over the top and gloomy. I liked "At Castle Boterel" by Hardy a lot more because it was a very detailed and the mood of the poem was very realistic for the circumstances that Hardy was in. It was very heartbreaking but it involved great use of imagery in it too. "At Castle Boterel" was my favourite poem because of these reasons.
