'Musical Moments - His Last Piano Lesson (1933)' part 1 by Dannie Abse

Musical Moments - His Last Piano Lesson (1933)

'Poet, be seated at the piano.' - Wallace Stevens

When, after tea,
(Germany still six million
miles away) Miss Crouch,
the upright piano teacher,
knocks at the front door
the boys at the back door.
Numbly bored with scales
nimbly scales the wall

and hearing in the park
the pointless cries of children,
joins butter-fingered Jack
and his high-flung tennis ball.

There backslangs
and jabberwocks,
swaps acid-drops for bull's-eyes,
Hammond for Hobbs,
and one pocket-aged
PK chewing gum --

till the park-keeper comes
stamping the gravel path,
blowing his whistle,
making the sparrows fly
from their scattered park bench crumbs
(their little noise
the shaking of umbrellas).

Back home, downstairs,
the piano-lid's closed,
a coffin of music,
Their war-faces, their big thumbs.

Commentary...

The quote Abse has chosen to precede this poem, 'Poet, be seated at the piano.' I think explains the rest of the poem well. It's suggesting that the speaker's art is poetry, not music, therefore the speaker feels he shouldn't be placed at a piano because that's not his passion, so sitting at a piano feels wrong to him and is something he doesn't enjoy. Throughout the poem the reader gets the impression that the speaker feels his piano lessons are more of a chore than an enjoyment.

It seems ironic that the speaker's piano teacher was called "Miss Crouch" when she was "upright", perhaps the speaker uses this paradox to show how he is a poet and pianos are for musicians so therefore he shouldn't have to play piano. The "boys at the back door" and the piano teacher at the "front door" shows how the speaker felt torn between what he had to do (piano lessons) and what he wanted to do (play outside with his friends). It's made clear that the speaker doesn't like his piano lessons, as he was "numbly bored" showing he didn't have the slightest interest in playing the piano.

The third and fourth stanza consist of the speaker describing  what he'd be missing out on outside where his friends are while he was indoors having piano lessons. There's the "park", "pointless cries of children", "backslangs and jabberwocks", and swapping sweets and toys with each other. This fun is then put to a stop by the "park keeper". As well as the title being 'His Last Piano Lesson', we can tell that this poem is about the boy choosing to end his piano lessons and instead playing out with his friends because "back home, downstairs, the piano-lid's closed". There was "a coffin of music" inside the piano suggesting that once the speaker's piano lessons were over, music didn't mean anything to his life anymore. This contrasts vastly with the way music is expressed in Larkin's poems as he seems to have a great connection with music, for example in 'Broadcast', 'Reference Back' and 'Love Songs in Age'. Also the the quote "a coffin of music" could be metaphorical for how the speaker's piano lessons made him feel - trapped.

This poem also has a theme of the speaker choosing to against what is expected of him. This theme is also seen in some of Larkin's poems, including 'Dockery and Son', 'Self's the Man' and 'Mr Bleaney'.