An Analysis of The Piano has been Drinking by Tom Waits.

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An Analysis of ‘The Piano has been Drinking’

Quazi Mohammad Faisal

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

‘The piano has been drinking’ is written by Tom Waits, an American singer-songwriter. This piece of writing is actually one of Tom Waits' songs which use several poetic conventions. Due to the factor it doesn’t give this one the shape of a true poetry. Still this one is an interesting piece of writing and has several conventions used where it can be analyzed stylistically. The poem is about a drunken pianist who’s sitting behind his piano late at night in a restaurant and blaming his piano, not himself, for his drunken state.

First thing to note about the poem is the title- “The piano has been drinking”. A piano is not a living element and it can’t drink. So, when someone goes through the title, it gives the idea that the poem there is someone behind that piano who is trying to tell a story through the piano. The scenario described in the poem took place late at night in one of the bars where the addresser is playing a piano. The whole poem was written in a second person tone, describing various elements of the place and it’s not until the last line we get the idea that it’s being told by the pianist: “The piano has been drinking, not me”. This also invites the readers to equate the narrator with the writer. The poem has a tone of irony and it was consistent throughout the poem.

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If we look at the structure, the poem has three stanzas. The first stanza has five lines and the next two have seven and six lines respectively. The lengths of the sentences in the poem are relatively long; with the second line of third stanza is the longest one with fifteen words. This is quite significant because people use to speak for longer when they are in the drunken state.

The use of rhythm is also quite interesting in the poem. Rhythm is used occasionally throughout the poem. In the first stanza, we can see rhythm in the last syllable ...

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