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 of the first four lines in ‘A-A’ and ‘B-B’ format. The writer also used rhythms in the second-third and fifth-sixth line of the second stanza and then again in the first two lines of the final stanza.
Use of alliteration is another notable aspect of the poem. Almost all the lines of the poem start with phrase: “And the”. Such as “And the carpet needs a haircut” or “And the telephone’s out of cigarettes”. The title of the poem “And the piano has been drinking” was repeated six times in the whole poem.
The language of the poem is primarily very symbolic. He used phrases like: "my necktie is asleep" or "telephone’s out of cigarettes" or "carpet needs a haircut". A necktie cannot sleep, telephones don’t smoke and carpets don’t go to hairdressers. Rather they were used as symbols of displacement of the necktie or the carpet do need a cleaning. Through the poem, the narrator’s stylistic register appears to be informal. However, sometimes even slang was marked in few lines (like, the narrator compares the IQ of the bar owner with a fence post: “And the owner is a mental midget with the I.Q. of a fence post”).
In terms of use of poetic effects, personification was observed quite frequently in the poem. In several lines he mentioned about inanimate objects performing actions which they are not capable of doing. He wrote: "the balcony is on the make" or "the menus are all freezing", eventually which caused category violation. The use of semantic level is also important as many of the lines have inner meanings. Like when he says “the light man’s blind in one eye and he can’t see out of the other”, he actually implied this is late at night and not all lights are on; and whatever is on is not enough to figure out things placed around. Similarly he wrote, “and the ash-trays have retired” which means there is almost no one there around to use the ash tray to spare with their ashes of smokes.
Overall, the poem is an absurd accusation. Tom Waits used simple words and depicts a very good picture of a late night bar. “The carper needs a haircut”, “the telephone’s out of cigarettes”, “the balcony is on the make” makes one think, is he a poet or an image-weaver? The poem might not have much significance as a piece of poetry but while reading the poem, one could actually conjure all the images that are told in the poet. On the whole, this poem is about a drunken pianist, who sits behind his piano, tries to blame an inanimate object for his inebriation--not so subtle irony. The addresser is obviously tired of playing in dives like this one; it's a late night bar: no waitress, a midget, a Sumo wrestler and just a spotlight.
The piano has been drinking
Tom Waits
The piano has been drinking, my necktie is asleep
And the combo went back to New York, the jukebox has to take a leak
And the carpet needs a haircut, and the spotlight looks like a prison break
And the telephone’s out of cigarettes, and the balcony is on the make
And the piano has been drinking, the piano has been drinking…
And the menus are all freezing, and the light man’s blind in one eye
And he can’t see out of the other
And the piano-tuner’s got a hearing aid, and he showed up with his mother
And the piano has been drinking, the piano has been drinking
As the bouncer is a Sumo wrestler, cream-puff casper milktoast
And the owner is a mental midget with the I.Q. of a fence post
‘Cause the piano has been drinking, the piano has been drinking…
And you can’t find your waitress with a Geiger counter
And she hates you and your friends and you just can’t get served without her
And the box-office is drooling, and the bar stools are on fire
And the newspapers were fooling, and the ash-trays have retired
‘Cause the piano has been drinking, the piano has been drinking
The piano has been drinking, not me, not me, not me, not me, not me