Musical Moments 1. His First Piano Lesson (1933) - Abse

From the first stanza we come to the conclusion that this poem is about a boy who is bored with doing piano lessons. We get the representation of this piano teacher that she is 'upright' which suggests that he or she could be quite strict and the boy dislikes this attribute of the teacher. The child's boredom is reinforced later in the stanza where it says 'Numbly bored with scales nimbly scales the wall'. However the word 'numb' describes a feeling of no sensation, which could reinforce this idea of death being used in this poem. Maybe the boy has given up on this idea of music altogether. This could link to the poem 'A Study of Reading Habits' by Larkin because Larkin gives up on this idea of books in that poem as well.

The child's boredom is reinforced further throughout stanza two where Abse comments 'and hearing in the park the pointless cries of children'. This suggests that this boy would much rather be playing outside with his friends than learning to play the piano. The fact that the word 'pointless' is used could reinforce this idea that these piano lessons are basically useless in his mind.

Abse then begins to use listing devices of what the boy maybe familiar with or what he
can see. However it is interesting that in stanza five the piano lid when closed is described as 'a coffin of music'. This further reinforces this idea in the poem that this child has given up faith in music, it has no presence or meaning in life, it's as if it is dead. This conjures up rather negative ideas to this poem. The use of the sharp simple stops through the full stops and commas in stanza five convey a rather morbid or dull feel to this poem. We also get the impression that the child has a strict family life. When the father comments 'That's his last piano lesson!'. This suggests that these piano lessons were forced upon the boy, hence why he is so bored throughout this poem. He feels that music is dead because his father has forced music upon him, which has turned it into something this boy hates, just like death itself.