Comparison

Both poems Half-past two and Piano seems to be about childhood memories. The theme of childhood experience is presented in both poems. For instance in half-past two the poet is telling us a story about a child who does not know how to tell the time and was forgotten by his teacher when he was asked to stay back after doing something naughty . Whereas in the poem Piano is about a man who listens to a piano playing and it recalls him back to his past. Where he remembers his mother playing the piano to him on the Sunday evenings, at home with winter outside and hymns in a cosy parlor.
In half-past two the story is told to us by a narrative. The narrative uses a childlike tone throughout the poem and this portrays when the poem starts off as ‘Once a upon a schooltime’. The tone makes it seems like the poet is telling a child a story. Unlike the poem Piano it begins with an older person telling the memory about recollection of his mother when he hears a piano playing. Both poems are written in stanzas, although they are written differently. In half-past two the poet has written it with eleven stanzas and in with three lines per stanza, throughout the poem it does not have regular rhythm but it has a rhyme in it. Whereas in Piano it is shorter although it has rhythm and rhyme throughout the poem. The languages used in both poems are equally different from each other. For example in the poem piano it is very formal and more serious and it uses more complex words to describe his emotions. The technique of using onomatopoeia on the poem makes it more interesting, this can be seen when the poet uses the words ‘boom’ and ‘tingling’ indicates that the man remembering his mother is the poet is himself. It portrays that D.H. Lawrence is writing about his personal experience. The poet also uses the words ‘betrays me back’ shows the struggle he is going through remembering something he does not want to remember. The poet’s use of language makes the poem more emotional by