http://voices.yahoo.com/analysis-philip-larkins-ambulances-11975314.html?cat=4
The title of poem Ambulances shows a sense of dread as it normally someone is in trouble and could be you know. It also reminds you that we are mortals and can easily die and will die eventually. However it could also be a good thing because it shows help is on the way to those who need it and they have a good chance of getting better. The structure is the poem is 5 stanza's each with 6 lines in. The rhymes in the poem are half rhymes with the rhyming scheme ABCBCA.
In the first line of the poem, Larkin uses a simile which is " Closed like confessionals". This is a bit weird because usually when you are confessing you are open about it and don't keep it to yourself. The simile also suggests that the closed door of the confessional is similar to the confined space of an ambulance when its doors are closed. The color of the ambulance is a "light glossy grey," and it has a plaque with the emergency services coat of arms on the side. It is fitting that the ambulance is painted grey, because ambulances often serve as the grey area between life and death; some who enter the ambulance alive leave it dead. The last two lines are particularly ominous; you never know when it will be your turn to die, but rest assured that one day it will be your turn to die. Death is inevitable and all-powerful.
The second stanza talks about children and women and the fact that death interprets everyday lives because everyone stops what they are doing to look at the ambulance. Children stop playing and stand strewn-scattered-on door steps and streets; women stop shopping; dinners are left on the stoves, all so that they can watch as the ambulance's newest victim be taken away. Larkin uses Alliteration. (Wild white face) The whiteness could be referring to two things: first, the person has grey hair, and from that we can infer that the person is older; and second, that all of the blood has gone from the person's face due to fear or illness. Wild probably refers to the patient being scared or having some psychosis, seizure, or other ailment that would require hospitalization. However Larkin uses objectification by describing the dead person as "it" which shows that dead people are like objects and have no rights or that people don't care about them when they are dead.
The third stanza shows that death is underneath us and therefore we forget it can get us and so when we see death, we just carry on with our everyday lives. It could also show us that death can get us at anytime. The stanza also shows that we can't escape from it and can't pretend it is not true. The last line od the stanza " They whisper at their own distress" shows that they now realize that they could be next to die
The first line of the forth stanza starts with a paradox, which is For borne away in deadened air, this shows that you are born and then you are dead. he people, who were standing around watching the paramedics load the person into the ambulance and then drive off, is reminiscent of a funeral; the people at the "funeral" had a moment of silence for the person, as people do at traditional wakes and funerals. The person's life is "nearly at an end;" he/she will take with them the "unique random blend of families and fashions" that has made up their unique life. Happiness and love are fleeting, but death is the only thing that we can truly count on in life.
The person's ties to their earthly existence are fading. Gone are the days of love with loved ones. He/she is now unreachable inside the ambulance. The traffic parts to let the ambulance through, the closer to the hospital they get, the further that person is from their life. These are his/her last moments. Who we are, no longer matters, death is all there is now.
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