Afternoons

 Afternoon's by Philip Larkin has a structure of 3 stanza's with 8 lines in them, which is the same a Wild Oats. The  poem has no rhyme scheme in it which could suggest the drifting aimlessness of he mothers lives. However this is quite insignificant because Larkin uses alliteration and  assonance which produces a musical flow in the poem. In this poem Larkin is a observer who watches others in the poem, he is also detached  impersonal in the poem. There are many themes that Larkin includes in the poem including: Time, change, endless cycle of growth, powerlessness in face of change, demands of parenthood, illusion and reality.

The title of the poem Afternoons shows us that Larkin is talking about a non eventful intermission between morning and evening. The first line in the poem "summer is fading" shows that summer ( happiness and fun) and the year is now coming to a end and things are now starting to get depressing and sad . It shows that they now only have Autumn (  decay decline of life) and winter (a period of coldness, misery, death) to look forward to. The next line " the leaves fall in ones and twos" again shows us that Autumn is begging and life is now starting to decay and decline. However because it is in "ones and "twos, it means that the decay is slow, gradual and unnoticed by people. The forth line in the stanza says " the new recreation ground" suggests that it is a play ground for children and shows the contrast between old/new and beginning and ending. The next line"In the hollows of afternoon's" shows that the afternoons are empty and that there is nothing to do. It also suggests that they are bored and are possibly unemployed because they are not doing anything. The following line in the stanza " Young mothers assemble" suggests that every mother has a purpose that they have to fulfill . It also shows that what mums have to do is like a military operation (important) and is like a cycle that all mums have to do on a day to day basis. It also suggests that Larkin is having a snobby attitude towards women who are young and have children.The last line in the stanza " Setting free the children", shows us that the mothers keep the children on the leads as if they are animals that can go out of control. As well as this it could suggest that the children come from zoo and that when they go of the lead they cause a lot of chaos around them which is a bad thing to happen. On the other hand it could suggest that the children are kept in a prison which means that they have to be contained because children cause bad things and so they have to be locked away to stop that from happening /

In the second stanza, Larkin starts of by complimenting husbands by saying " Behind them, at intervals, Stand husbands in skilled trades". This shows that Larkin has a preference to husbands  because he is saying they are more skilled than women. In the next line " an estateful of washing", Larkin stereotypes everyone's laundry of being all everywhere on the floor and that there is lots of it that they don't care to wash. In the following lines "And the albums, lettered Our Wedding, lying Near the television". Larkin is showing that the T.V represents laziness and that these people are lazy because they are watching T.V. Also back the T.V is a early luxury item for them and so the wedding album is not important to them anymore. The following line "Before them, the wind Is ruining their courting places" shows that the wind is a invisible destructive force (like time) and is decaying their early life.

The last line in the second stanza is a enjambment because it follows on into the first line in the third stanza which is "That are still courting places". This shows that thing for them are changing and they can't go back to the past.  The next line in the stanza has been  put in brackets which is " (But the lovers are all in school)". this suggests that Adults are not in love with each other as much when they are  old, however people who are still young and in their youth are more in love with each other.  The next two lines in the poem " And the children, so intent on Finding unripe acorns", shows that Children have low expectations in life and they themselves are unripe acorns. The following line " Expect to be taken home" suggests that that the children are very demanding and what they order there mothers around. However on the other hand it could suggest that being a mother is a priority now and they need to take care of their children well. The following line " Their beauty has thickened talks about how the mothers have changed. The line suggests that the mothers are not as attractive and are getting fatter then other people. Furthermore it suggests that giving birth to a child has changed them physically and mentally. The final two lines in the poem " Something is pushing them To the side of their own lives could suggest a number of different things. It could suggest that the children are growing up and they are growing up more attractive. Also it shows that generations are moving on and they need to do the same and so they need to move on from spring and summer and move into autumn and winter. Finally it could suggest that time is making the children grow up.  
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Self's the man

In selfs the man Larkin compares his life to another person called Arnold who is married. So instead of comparing his life to others he is comparing the life between a man who is single (Larkin) and some who is married (Arnold). The poem also considers the topic of marriage. Larkin contrasts his life with that of Arnold who 'married a woman to stop her getting away / Now she's there all day.' Arnold is no longer free: his wife nags him and his salary goes to his children. The view of Arnold's wife is very negative: you may feel that the poem's attitude to women reflects a fear present throughout this collection. Larkin wonders whether bachelor life or marriage is the more selfish social choice.

The first stanza starts of with " Oh no one can deny That Arnold is less selfish than I". In these lines Larkin is saying that being single means you can be a selfish person, because you don't need to worry about any one else. It also tell the reader that the poem is going to be about Arnold who happens to be less selfish than Larkin. Furthermore it shows that Lakin is a cynical person who only looks out for himself. The other two lines in the poem "He married a woman too stop he getting away Now she's there all day", shows that in the poem,  Larkin will be talking about his view of marriage. The lines show that Arnold really loved this woman and had to be with her, so he married her to guarantee their future. Furthermore it shows that know Arnold is with this women he know can't escape from her because he does not want to be with her all the time. Larkin picks up on this and is boasting at this fact that Arnold can't escape.

The second stanza starts with "And the money he gets from wasting his life on work", this means that Arnold does not get anything from working and is wasting his life on it. " The following line "she takes as her perk" suggest that Arnold wife does not work and because she now has Arnold,  she does not have to work because Arnold is doing the work for her. The rest of the stanza talks about what Arnold has to spend his money on which includes "To pay for the kiddies clobber and the direr and the electric fire". This shows that when you are marries you have to spend the money you work for on your family and the essentials they need. This means that when you are married you can't spend the money you make on thing that you want to by for yourself. Also His negative view of women continues into the second stanza. “Perk”, another example of colloquial lexis, is a work bonus. That the woman takes “the money he gets” seems to present her as selfish, and almost like a prostitute, being paid for sex, and the uses direct speech “It’s Put a screw in this wall” mocks the women’s stereotypical words and undermines them, the imperative making her seem interfering and controlling. Direct speech is used again for the mother’s words: “Saying Won’t you come for the summer.” Again, mocking and scornful, this utterance holds pseudo-snobbishness.

The third stanza talks about what Arnold does in the evenings. Larkin writes" And when he finishes supper Planning to have read at the evening paper", this means that all day Arnold has planned that after he has finished his supper he will relax and read the evening paper which he wants to do. However instead of doing what he wants to do he has to "Put a screw in this wall" and says that "He has no time at all". This shows that Arnold has to do chores around the house and fix things around the house instead of relaxing. It also shows that because Arnold is married he has to put his family and house first and has not time to do what  he wants with himself.

In the forth stanza Larkin starts with "With the nippers to wheel around the house", this shows that Arnold has to run around the house getting things for his family which leaves not time for himself". it also shows how buys Arnold is because he is constantly getting things for his family. The stanza then talks about Arnold' s mother and law by saying "And that letter to her  mother Saying Won't you come for this summer". In these lines, Larkin puts "Wont you come for this summer" in Italic' to show that Arnold is mocking his wife, this means that Arnold does not like his mother in law but she has to do it for his wife's sake. This shows that when you are married you have to do things you want to do and meet other people you don't like, just to keep your wife happy. It also shows that Arnolds summer which is free time to relax for him, is now ruined by his mother in law which means he has no free time in the summer to relax.

In the fifth stanza Larkin reconsiders his few on being married and whether it is a good thing or a bad thing. The stanza starts of by saying "To compare his life to mine", which shows that Larkin is know thinking about Arnold's life , his own life  and comparing which one is better. This also shows that Larkin is considering whether being single is actually better that being someone who is married to another. He then decides that being single is not so good by calling himself " a swine" when he compares his life to Arnold's. This shows that Larkin is now saying that being single is quite bad and being married will make you have a better life. The next two lines in the stanza say" Oh, no one can deny That Arnold is less selfish than I". This shows that everyone can agree with each other that Larkin (being single) is more selfish than Arnold (being married).

The sixth stanza Larkin reconsiders his statement that being married means you are not a selfish person. In the second line Larkin writes " is there such a contrast", this shows that there is different side to marriage and that it is not all about doing things for your family. Larkin then writes "He was out for his own ends", which shows that even though Arnold is married, he can still do things for himself and can still be a selfish person even though he has a wife.

In the seventh stanza Larkin continues with this point and says "He still did it for his own sake", which repeats the point that Arnold is still a selfish person even though he is married to his wife and can still do things for himself. After making this point Larkin then realises that " he and I are the same" which shows that you can still be as selfish as being single as you can when you are married and have a family to look after.

In the last stanza Larkins writes Only I'm a better hand At knowing what I can stand".  This shows that Lakin knows what he can stand up with and what he can't. The next line " Without them sending a van" shows that people are coming to get Arnold because he is getting insane as he can't take himself. The last line of the poem "Or I suppose I can" shows that He undermines his point and that he still has some self doubt.

The poems structure is a 7 stanza poem with 4 lines on each. Larkin also uses the rhyming structure AABB.

Dockery and Son

Dockery and Son By Philip Larkin

In Dockery and Son, Larkin who is the narrator describes the aftermath of a visit to his old school. There he meets his Dean, a “death-suited” vision of the past, who reminds him of an Old Boy named Dockery whose son is now at the school. This leads the narrator to a meandering – but never unfocussed – trail of memories and regrets, in which he thinks about the passing of years and the value he has given his life. The ‘conversation’ that follows is of a man talking with himself.

The poem has an odd structure. There are six stanzas of eight lines, which give the poem its form, but there is no consistency to the rhyme scheme from one stanza to the next. Furthermore, the stanzas are not self-contained; follow to the next one often in mid-phrase. This seemingly haphazard design reflects the narrator’s thoughts as he jumps from one incomplete idea or memory to the next, shifting perspective and tone with each new reflection.

The The first Stanza in the poem starts of with the line "Dockey was to you," this shows that  from this first line, Larkin hints that ‘age’ will be a theme in the poem. It also shows the reader that his friend Dockery is not as old or powerful as Larkin. The Line follows with the "Dean", which shows the reader that Larkin is thinking about when he was at university because a Dean was someone who is in charge of a University. The second Line ends with "His son's here now" which shows that his friend Dockery has a son at the same university, who has grown up. In the fifth line Larkin gets the feeling that he is really old because he mentions "Black-gowned , unbreakfasted, and still half tight",  here Larkin realises how old he is compared to others now his friend has a son at university. Also in this stanza Larkin  casts his mind back to those younger days, when the same Dean would confront him – and unnamed friends – to explain some misadventure from the night before. These were exciting times, when chances were taken and life was about risk. The stanza ends with “I try the door of where I used to live:” and there is an expectation that more will be revealed about this glorious past.

However in the second stanza the first word "Locked" follows on from the last stanza, which shows that he can't go back to the life he had when he was younger. He then talks about the place "The Lawn " of where he used to live which shows that it is a familiar place to him. In the second line Larkin talks about "I catch my train, ignored", this shows that old people are charmless and that Larkin is not that very famous to a lot of  people. it also shows that people are not interested in him and he is ignored or invisible to them. The following line " Canal and clouds and colleges subside is a alliteration that Larkin used to illustrate that there is no more more college and youth for him. In the next Line Larkin express how surprised he is at Dockery by saying " But Dockery, good lord", this shows that on his journey he is surprised at Dockery and his Son. 

The third stanza in the poem follows on from the last by talking about Dockery, in the first and second line, Larkin talks about Dockery's room mate "Cartwrght who was killed?". It is significant that the narrator seems to remember a dead boy with more clarity than one who has lived. This idle thought suggests that life is precious and not to be wasted; an idea that is echoed in the poem’s closing lines. However the narrator yawns and falls asleep in the middle of the idea. Halfway through the stanza,  Larkin talks about " Sheffield, where i changed" and he thinks that it is a "horrible place". This suggests that Larkin prefers his younger Life at Hull and does not like Sheffield. However the lines  could represent life’s choices and the paths that all might take, while the moon’s reflection symbolises the shimmering dreams and forces that are forever out of reach. This image ends the third stanza and begins the fourth. It is the central idea in the poem both structurally and thematically.

In the forth stanza Larkin  continues with, “To have no son, no wife, / No house or land still seemed quite natural.” However the narrator now realises, “how much had gone of life, / How widely from the others.” He suddenly feels old, and knows that he has lived quite differently to people like Dockery, who “must have taken stock  of what he wanted.” The reference to ‘stock’ reinforces the notion of life being a business; an idea that is also suggested by the poem’s title, which sounds like the name of a commercial enterprise.



The fith stanza Larken says " To me it was dilution". This shows that Larrkins identity  would have been diluded if he had a child and lost part of himself. It also shows that he knows that he will be a unselfish man if he gets married. Also in the stanza Larkin is saying that he thinks that some people should not have the privalage to have children e.g. bad. He also says that " We think truest, or most want to do" , which is politticaly getting fashes. The last part of the stanza " They're more a style Our lives bring with them, this shows that routine becomes a traidtion, which becomes hard to break. The last line of the stanza " Suddenly they harden into all we've got, which is saying that certain habits you keep because they are hard to break



The last stanza starts with a paradox "And how we got it looked back on , they rear like sand-clouds, thick and close, embodying For Dockery a son, for me nothing". Also Larkin becomes a pessimist in the poem by daying " Life is first boredom, then fear" which shows ageing and death for everywon. It also means that when you are in your youth, life is very boring, but when you are older you have the dear of death.  In the long run, the poet suggests, our choices are half-chance, “what something hidden from us chose,” and all the branching possibilities of life end up alike, with “age, and then the only end of age.” The reader is reminded of the poem’s central motif, in which life is compared to a journey that ends, at a station watched over by a distant, “unhindered moon.”

The poem also talks about increase vs. dilution.

Talking in Bed

Philip Larkin-Talking in Bed

Talking in bed is about a couple who are talking in bed and Larkin describes what their relationship is like. The main theme in the poem is love and relationships. He structures the poem into 4 stanza’s each with 3 lines in them. The first stanza is about talking in bed, the second stanza is about the weather, the third stanza is about the landscape and the final stanza goes back to the reader talking about his relationship with his wife. The poem is actually talking about Larkin and his relationship with his wife.

The title of the poem shows that the Larkin and his wife are having an intimacy private conversation with each other with no other things to distract them away from one another.  Shows that they are in the same bed which suggests they are a couple. We also assume it is set in the evening because you don’t really talk in bed unless they both don’t have work in the morning.  The fact they are just talking each other could suggests they are not really in love with each other and that it is almost like a friendship between them instead.

 

The first stanza of the poem talks about what talking in bed is like for him and what it means. The first line in the poem says that “Talking in bed ought to be easy”. This suggests that Larkin finds talking in bed not that easy to do and finds it quite difficult. It shows that Larkin and his wife are somehow isolated from each other and find it difficult to communicate which each other. In the next Line Larkin suggests they are in bed “lying together”, so they don’t do anything else. Also the fact that it “goes back so far” might also suggest they don’t do anything in bed together anymore and what they did together is a long time ago, and because Larking uses the word “lying” which suggests that they lie to each other and have been doing it for a long time. The third line talks about “An emblem of two people being honest” which shows that talking in bed is a symbol of them being honest with each other and keeping it a secret. However in the previous line Larking talked about “lying”, which is a paradox because he is saying that the both are lying and being honest with each other.  Larkin obviously does not believe that love could last forever and can be a disappointment.

The second stanza talks about the wind apart from the last line with follows on from the previous stanza. It says that “Yet more and more time passes silently”. This shows that although they are honest with each other they but they don’t say anything to one another instead of telling the truth. This means that that the couple think that being silent will avoid them telling the truth to each other. The second line is “Outside, the wind’s incomplete unrest”. This shows an absence of an intimacy and the couple did not say everything they could have done. It also suggests that Larkin feels that he is outside, alone and away from his wife.  Be that the couple in this poem has been in a relationship for a long time or possibly be married but the wind is active all the time. Larkin uses nature to describe what is happening outside, because while the outside world continues as normal, the inside world remains in its isolation. Moreover, Larkin shows contempt and dislike for modern life by touching the problematic values of human communication. Nowadays, communicating with a person is something many people could possibly relate to, as it is a problem often seen in everyday life. The third line in the stanza “Builds and dispersers clouds in the sky” could suggest that their relationship breaks and builds, so at one moment they hate each other the next they like each other.  Larkin uses the weather as pathetic fallacy to show what is happening on the inside.   

As in second stanza Larkin also uses imagery of the nature and environment at the beginning of third stanza where Larkin talks about the landscape, “And dark towns heap up on the horizon”, but this time the focus is not on natural objects but rather on man-made aspects of the environment. As seen in line 7 the environment, suggested by dark towns, does not bring satisfactory fulfilments in human expectations. “Dark towns” suggest that Larkin thinks that society is miserable and relationships cause darkness. It also shows that darkness is the future of their relationship. The following line “None of this cares for us. Nothing shows why”, shows that there is no hope coming for him only more darkness in the future. In the third line of the third stanza “At this unique distance from isolation, Larkin emphasises the desperation of situation between these two people gathered in one place where they could truly be themselves, but they are at a loss.

In the final stanza of the poem Larkin talks about what he says to his wife that affects their relationship. The first two lines “It becomes still more difficult to find Words at one true and kind”. This suggests that he finds it difficult to find a word that is kind and true to his wife. He does not know whether to be true or kind and can only say something that either hurts his wife’s feelings or lies to her. The final line in the poem is “Or not untrue and not unkind” which is a paradox because not untrue means true and not unkind means unkind.  This shows that there is a gap between kind and unkind and that is where he is. He is using tact diplomacy evasions which is a way of not hurting the feeling but not lying at the same time so you are trying to be true and kind at the same time.  The final line leaves the reader with ambiguous feeling of unfulfilled desire.

So Larkin’s poem “Talking in bed” shows us a fairly miserable relationship between two people that has run its cause. It enables us to relate to possible common experiences in our own lives and provoke us to think about the gap between expectations, the reality and irony of love in modern world. However, an irony, one of the dominant features in this poem, gives us the opportunity to create our own perception of love. I think Larkin believed that love is a positive thing, but we all know that reality makes nothing simple and often confront us with painful disappointment.

Here

Here” is a sprawling, moving, and often majestic poem that takes the reader on a visual journey through the countryside and the town, before finally ending up on the coast Larkin uses long, flowing sentences which add a sense of continual movement & these sentences are full of rich imagery and description which fully immerse the reader in the poem.

The speaker begins by reporting, “Swerving east, from rich industrial shadows.” He employs an ambiguous use of the word “swerving.” At first one thinks of an automobile swerving, and then that thought seems to be supported by the second line, “And traffic all night north.” And then the swerving continues: “swerving through fields too thin and thistled to be called meadows.”

The speaker is in a vehicle or is driving through the areas he is mentioning, but instead of merely driving he is “swerving": “swerving to solitude of skies and scarecrows, haystacks, hares and pheasants and the widening river's slow presence, the piled gold clouds, the shining gull-marked mud.” It is the speaker’s mind that is doing the swerving, not necessarily the automobile in which he is riding, or perhaps driving

The first line of the second stanza is a continuation of the last line of the first stanza: “The piled gold clouds, the shining gull-marked mud, Gathers to the surprise of a large town.” All of the "swerving" finally "gathers" the speaker to a large town; his swerving from industrial shadows through fields to skies and scarecrows, haystacks, the river, the clouds, and the gull-marked mud gathers him mentally and physically to the place where he finds surprisingly a large town at the end of it all.

Next, the speaker describes what he sees in the “large town”: “Here domes and statues, spires and cranes cluster beside grain-scattered streets, barge-crowded water.” The Domes, statues and spires show a grand monumental skyline of the town. However Larkin then gives the town a negative comment by saying “cranes cluster” which shows the industrial (bad) side of the town. He also sees the residents and reports on how they got there, “brought down the dead straight miles by stealing flat-faced trolleys, push through plate-glass swing doors to their desires.” He then catalogues other items: “Cheap suits, red kitchen-ware, sharp shoes, iced lollies, electric mixers, toasters, washers, drier. This describes the town as cheap and dull.

In the third stanza, he qualifies the residents as “A cut-price crowd, urban yet simple, dwelling where only salesmen and relations come.” He also describes the people as urban yet simple, streetwise but not intelligent. Once again, he catalogues what he sees: “Pastoral of ships up streets, the slave museum, tattoo-shops, consulates, grim head-scarfed wives.” The town the speaker is describing is Hull, a city in northeast England, and the “slave museum” refers to the home of the abolitionist William Wilberforce.

The main theme in Larkin’s “Here” is suggested in the last three lines of the third stanza and the first line and a half in the fourth stanza: “And out beyond its mortgaged half-built edges fast-shadowed wheat-fields, running high as hedges, isolate villages, where removed lives loneliness clarifies. Here silence stands like heat.” Indeed, loneliness was Larkin’s main theme, even as he cursed the darkness, he held “loneliness” up like a torch.

The poem comprises four eight-line stanzas with an ABBACDDC rhyme scheme. However, Larkin makes considerable use of half-rhymes in this poem (e.g. solitude/mud, stands/ascends) and there are “rhymes” that are scarcely rhymes at all, such as dwelling/museum and trolleys/driers. The effect of this is to give the poem a relaxed, informal tone. Although the poem has structure it is not overplayed and one is barely aware of it as the poem proceeds.

The Whitson Weddings

The Whitsun Wedding is a poem Larkin going on a train journey. On the train journey he describes the scenery and the smells of the country side and towns through which the largely empty train passes. The train's windows are open because of the heat, and he gradually becomes aware of bustle on the platforms at each station, eventually realising that this is thwe noise and actions of wedding parties that are seeing off couples who are boarding the train. When he sees the wedding parties and spots the different class of people who are there who are the girl’s fathers, mothers, Uncle, Couples and children. He also spots what there are actions and makes judgements on them.

One of the themes in the Whitson Wedding is Marriage and relationships. When Larkin first introduces he weddings in the third stanza he describes them in a bad way, first he uses the word “destroys”, which shows he does not really like marriage that much. Also when we first notice them in the third stanza he “went on reading” which shows that he is not bothered about him. As well as this, he describes marriages shows that there life is near the end in the early hours of marriage.  “Coach-party annexes, the wedding-days were coming to an end”.

Larkin also writes about the newly married couple’s relatives in the poem and writes about them in an aggressive tone.  These newly married couples are accompanied by their relatives and they certainly belong to lower economic class. The description of their physical experiences with the words and phrases like “pomaded girls”, parodies of fashion” suggest that they are from the lower economic class. In each station and platform the poet witnesses the flow of such newly married couples. The poet virtually being an unmarried man is full of disgust for marriage with the arrival of those people and the poet undergoes mystifying experiences of suffocation. He is put in an uneasy situation and starts mocking the appearances of those married couples and their relatives. However at the end of the poem Larkin changes his tone towards marriage and the relatives. “A sense of falling, like an arrow shower sent out of sight, somewhere becomes rain”. In these lines the poet expresses his realization of importance of marriage. The poem suddenly becomes ironic because his realization contradicts his previous attitude towards marriage. In these lines “arrow, showers” and “rain” relate marriage to fertility and to the continuity of life.

Throughout he poem Larkin describes what he is seeing from the train window. Throughout the poem he see’s industry as well as countryside on his journey with the description of nature at the end of the poem.  In the first stanza he describes the town his train set of from. He describes it by saying he swore “the back of houses” and “smelt the fish dock to show that he was by the sea side”. At the end of the stanza he starts to describe the country side by saying “the river’s level drifting beneath began”. This shows it’s the start of the countryside and his journey on the train. In the second stanza he continues to describe the countryside by mentioning “Wide farms” and “short shadowed cattle”. However he then describes the industry in the poem. The canal's 'industrial froth' and the 'new and nondescript' towns with 'acres of dismantled cars' suggest that Larkin doesn't find modern scenery entirely sympathetic.  The final word in the poem is rain.  Larkin describes the nature (rain) to show the good in marriages and to show the greatness in the world is the nature that surrounds us and the industry things in this world.

The poem has eight rhymed stanzas, of ten lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCDECDE. The lines in each stanza have five stresses except the second line, which has only two. The shorter line introduces a visual contrast and may suggest to you the alternating but regular rhythm of a train. This rhythm is also created by run-on lines which pause briefly in the middle of sentences: 'all sense of being in a hurry gone'; 'we ran behind the backs of houses'.