McKenna Elliott Assignment 3

1) In the poem "Piano", D. H. Lawrence creates a light tone then shifts to a nostalgic, melancholy tone through strong diction choices. When first discussing what he observes, he uses words such as "softly", "poised", and "tingling" to paint an image of a child sitting under a piano as his mother plays and sings. This is a pleasant image, so Lawrence conveys this content tone through these light diction choices. The shift in tone occurs in line 5 when the speaker is no longer content and happy with this image, but longs for the past to reoccur. This shift in tone is conveyed through diction choices that contrast the first four lines. These words include "spite", "insidious", "betrays", "weeps", "vain", "burst", and "flood of remembrance". These all carry negative connotation, contrasting the earlier lines as the speaker is now disappointed that he will never be able to get his childhood back and experience any of the same things since manhood is now upon him. These words are sad, angry, and melancholy.

2) "The artist speaks to our capacity for delight and wonder, to the sense of mystery surrounding our lives, to our sense of pity and beauty, and pain." --Joseph Conrad

I identify with this quote about art the most because it expresses the subjective influence that art has on a person. Not everyone is going to experience the same feeling or emotion from a piece of art, and this quote shows that a piece of art has the ability to speak for any kind of struggle or happiness, etc. It shows that art can communicate what words sometimes cannot, and this is a belief that I hold to be true, just like this quote.