Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Naomi Shihab Nye’s "Music" is a poignant meditation on desire, deprivation, and the tension between longing and reality. Through the speaker’s childhood wish for a piano, the poem explores themes of aspiration, the limitations of circumstance, and the contrast between imagination and the harshness of the world. The poem is structured around two distinct lessons, each revealing something essential about the way the speaker experiences music—not just as sound, but as an emotional and psychological force.

The poem opens with an observation about wanting: "When you wanted a piano everyone wanted something." This immediately frames the speaker’s wish in the broader context of family desires. The specificity of each family member’s longing highlights both individuality and commonality—each person is reaching for something that represents fulfillment. Betty prays for "a red silk dress with polka-dots," an image of childhood fantasy and aesthetic joy. The mother, in contrast, desires something intangible: "a gold watch to hold the time / that kept leaving her before she could find it." This yearning for control over time—something constantly slipping away—suggests an awareness of loss, aging, or the struggle to hold onto fleeting moments.

The father’s desires are more practical, yet no less unattainable: "a green Studebaker car with fat headlights, / a Venetian blind that didn’t stick." The Studebaker represents a symbol of status and mobility, while the broken blind reflects an everyday frustration with things that don’t work as they should. These wishes, while different in nature, all speak to a fundamental human condition—wanting what is just out of reach, believing that a specific object might provide security, beauty, or order.

The first lesson comes when the speaker, unable to have a piano, improvises: "You made a paper keyboard and played it in the dark, singing the notes." This act of imagination and resourcefulness speaks to a child’s resilience—the ability to create something meaningful out of nothing. Even in its absence, music takes form, extending beyond the physical instrument. The speaker’s ability to "feel a pedal in the carpet" suggests a deeply sensory engagement with music, one that transcends material limitations.

The next moment, set in the school environment, deepens this sense of connection: "Everyone would turn, pack their books, / while you stood hinged to that last tone / emptying into the air." This depiction of lingering on a sound that is already fading speaks to the power of music as something that extends beyond the moment of performance. The verb "hinged" suggests that the speaker is physically and emotionally attached to the sound, reluctant to let it vanish. The realization follows: "It was gone. But if you tilted your head?" This last question suggests an awareness that even when something seems lost, there are ways to perceive it differently—to hold onto it, to continue hearing it beyond its literal presence.

The second lesson, however, is much harsher. "Your father found the keyboard / And slapped you for wasting paper." This moment of violence and reprimand sharply contrasts with the beauty and expansiveness of music in the earlier lines. The father, concerned with practicality and scarcity, sees only waste where the speaker saw creativity. This moment reflects a common tension in childhood—between imagination and the adult world’s concerns with material necessity.

The final line—"The second lesson was long."—is striking in its simplicity. It suggests that this was not just a single moment of punishment but the beginning of a prolonged understanding: that certain dreams are not easily supported, that the world often prioritizes function over feeling, and that creative longing is not always met with encouragement.

"Music" is ultimately a reflection on the contrast between inner richness and external limitation. The speaker’s ability to find music in absence is an act of resilience, yet the world’s response—embodied in the father’s reaction—serves as a painful counterpoint. Naomi Shihab Nye captures both the power of longing and the weight of reality, showing how a child’s love for music persists even in the face of denial. The poem lingers in the tension between these forces, leaving the reader with a sense of quiet endurance, the way music itself continues to resonate beyond the moment it is played.

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