Analysis Of The Poem A Musical Instrument

Piercing as the music described in it, the poem “A Musical Instrument” investigates the concepts of human nature and growth through the use of imagery, symbolism, and various literary devices. At the heart of the poem, Browning explores the need for humans to use their beastly nature to create a force greater than themselves in order to achieve growth. The impact of the actions of a seemingly indifferent, careless god on an unassuming reed creates a dichotomy throughout the poem, one that is vital to understanding the transformation of the individual.

Opening the poem with unrest and chaos, Browning’s use of juxtapositions in the imagery “Breaking… golden lilies” and tearing a reed from “the deep cool bed” of the river convey a feeling of …show more content…
A product of great agony, the music is a representation of the cost paid in order to become an instrument. Pan, without the reed, cannot make music; on the other hand, the reed, without Pan blowing into it, cannot make music either; it is when the two work together that a haunting melody is produced. No longer only a reed, an unaltered, youthful nature, the individual has become a part of their beastly nature, and it has become a part of them. The merging of the two creates the greater force, one that brings rebirth and change in the individual's life. As the music was played, Browning describes the “lilies [being] revived” and the “dragonfly c[o]m[ing] back” to the river. Water lilies often represent rebirth while dragonflies represent change; Browning’s use of symbolism in both unveils to the reader the reality of Pan; not a physical being, Pan is the beastial/carnal force that affect the heart of man, drawing it out like the pith of a reed and becoming one with it. So the individual emerges, reborn, a part of them replaced, a greater force created, and with that, the ability to grow, change, and bring