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Piano and Drums

Piano and Drums. Key themes. Contrast between sophistication and barbarianism Fear of the unknown Visual and auditory imagery Speaker is experiencing the advancement of both cultures. Literary techniques. ‘When at break of day at a riverside’ Break of day has double meaning

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Piano and Drums

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  1. Piano and Drums

  2. Key themes • Contrast between sophistication and barbarianism • Fear of the unknown • Visual and auditory imagery • Speaker is experiencing the advancement of both cultures

  3. Literary techniques • ‘When at break of day at a riverside’ • Break of day has double meaning • Start of a new day and start of a archaic civilization • Riverside represents jungles, wilderness, tribes • ‘jungle drums telegraphing’ • Juxtaposes primal culture and modern society • ‘like mystic rhythm, urgent, raw like bleeding flesh’ • List of three, present participles, simile • Bleeding flesh emphasizes brutality, animalism, primitivism • Urgent, raw connotes fear and aggression

  4. Literary techniques • ‘primal youth and the beginning,’ • They have just been born • Contrasts the establishment of sophistication • ‘panther ready to pounce, leopard snarling about to leap’ • Present participles, alliteration, animalism • Aggressiveness and determination to defend their culture • ‘Hunters crouch with spears poised;’ • Emphasis on brutality • Semi colon emphasizes a dramatic pause • Readiness to defend their culture and make their mark on the world

  5. Literary techniques • ‘And my blood ripples, turns torrent, topples my years’ • Conjunctives show continual suffering of colonization • Imagery of fear • Topples my years personifies experience being thrown away for helplessness • ‘I’m in my mother’s lap a suckling;’ • Speaker feels inferior, helpless like a baby • Knows nothing of the barbarian world

  6. Literary techniques • ‘I’m walking simple paths with no innovation;’ • Receding away from sophistication • Life is simple like a child’s view of the world • Stanza is to represent colonization • A new beginning, starting off young in a new world ‘naked warmth of hurrying feet with groping hearts in green leaves and wild flowers pulsing.’ • Present participles show sense of urgency to establish themselves • Naked warmth shows security • Naturalistic imagery represents childlike freedom

  7. Literary techniques • ‘Then I hear a wailing piano solo speaking of complex ways in tear-furrowed concerto;’ • Shift in tone to express the western world • Intrusive auditory imagery interrupting previous stanza – his conjuration of safety in his head • Life in a new world can be hard, one can miss their own culture • Complex represents sophistication of the world they came from • Wailing piano is melodic • Concerto shows sophisticated society is special as it stands out

  8. Literary techniques • ‘of far away lands and new horizons with coaxing diminuendo, counterpoint, and crescendo.’ • Far away lands and new horizons represents opportunity and colonization of other places • Combination of decreases and increases in volume of the piano connotes excitement at the adventure

  9. Literary techniques • ‘But lost in the labyrinth of its complexities,’ • Labyrinth emphasizes sophistication of modern society • Reality of colonization and exploration is difficult ‘it ends in the middle of a phrase at a daggerpoint.’ • Links to the end of the first stanza with ‘spears poised;’ • Emphasizes another shift in tone because the music suddenly ends, signifying that the cultures have merged • Daggerpoint suggests abruptness

  10. Literary techniques • ‘And I lost in the morning mist of an age at a riverside keep wandering in the mystic rhythm of jungle drums and the concerto.’ • Relates to first stanza • Morning mist shows a new beginning but with uncertainties of what the future holds for the two cultures • Enjambment creates free flowing rhythm and suggests speed of the merging of the two cultures • Lost and wandering shows how immersed the speaker is in the two cultures • Repetition of mystic rhythm to emphasize so much that is unknown • Jungle drums and concerto is a juxtaposition that has finally been joined at the end of the poem

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