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.
No comments:
Post a Comment