Student Name: ___________________________________ Date: ____

Directions: Use the RUNNERS strategy to answer the following questions. Make sure
that you prove where you found your answers. Take your time and do your very best!

Piano
by D.H. Lawrence

1 Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me;

2 Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see
3 A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling strings
4 And pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings.

5 In spite of myself, the insidious¹ mastery of song

6 Betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong
7 To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside
8 And hymns in the cozy parlor, the tinkling piano our guide.

9 So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamour

10 With the great black piano appassionato². The glamour
11 Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast
12 Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past.

¹ insidious means something or someone who is sneaky.

²appassionato is an Italian word meaning “with a lot of passion.”
6-1.2
1. What is the point-of-view of this poem?

A first person
B second person
C third person
D This poem has no point-of-view.
6-1.5
2. What literary device does the poet use in lines 2-3?

A metaphor
B flashback
C foreshadowing
D onomatopoeia
6-1.4
3. What makes the speaker of this poem think back to his childhood?

A hearing children play

B hearing a woman sing
C watching a mother play with her child
D watching a piano in the corner of the room
6-1.5
4. How do words like “softly” and “cozy” affect the tone of lines 1-8?

A They make readers feel sad.

B They make readers feel distant.
C They make readers feel worried.
D They make readers feel comfortable.
6-1.5
5. Which word changes the tone of the poem?

A clamour
B glamour
C remembrance
D child
6-1.3
6. What literary device does the poet use in line 6?

A simile
B metaphor
C hyperbole
D personification
6-1.4
7. Why does the speaker cry at the end of the poem?

A He misses his wife.

B He misses his childhood.
C He is worried about his children.
D He is sad that the piano is broken.