Sunny Prestatyn

Introduction

Though it has no dialogue, the poem opens with a quotation from an advert, “Come to Sunny Prestatyn”. In the 1950s, these would have been common, and people did indeed travel to Prestatyn for a weekend holiday. There aren’t many poems in this collection intended to shock and offend, but this one, like ‘Self’s the Man’ is one – though comical at the same time. From comic, however, the poem moves to sinister.

Analysis- Stanza 1

The poem starts by presenting the perfect women. The first line in the stanza " laughed the girl on the poster shows us the is the idealised women for men and Larkin thinks she is beautiful. It also shows that seeing this women on the poster makes Larkin happy and cheerful. the fourth line in stanza shows us that the women is innocent, however also has the sense that this is false beauty. The focus on the sexuality of the girl in the advert presents the perfection of women, (which is what adverts usually do) to promote Prestatyn.  . “Tautened white satin” for example, shows off her figure, her “thighs” and “breast-lifting arms”. “Behind her, a hunk of coast” puns on the duel meaning of “hunk” – both a ‘clump’ of something or a colloquial term for a male, as though by coming to this place, men will find girls like these. Yet, despite her obvious sex-appeal, “a hotel with palms / Seems to expand from her thighs,” as if she is giving birth to the hotel. The grotesque image adds humour to the poem.

Stanza 2-

The first line in stanza two has two meanings. one of them is that this was the day the poster was put up, or it shows that this was when people where vandalising the poster an it suggests that the post is getting beaten, ruined and destroyed. The image of the girl has been physically violated, vadndolised, disfigured and raped.

Stanza 3 -

In the final stanza, there is a hint of violence in “Someone had used a knife” “to stab right through / The moustached lips of her smile”. The fith line in the stanza ( She was too good for this life)  shows that if you deface a women it is ok and that she was too beautiful to be a poster. Her perfection has been defiled, lesser humans have brought about her destruction. It shows what some men would do, if they could, to women ,a desire to destroy and conquer, intermingled into sex. Yet, considering the opening of the poem, and the grotesque nature of the image, was she “too good”, after all?

The poem concludes with an image of death. After “a great transverse tear / Left only a hand and some blue”, the poster is replaced by one saying “Fight Cancer”. This poster, perhaps, will survive longer than its predecessor. The idea of fighting a cancerous growth fits better with this society, who, as though possessed by a disease, cannot let perfection rest. It also shoes that people don't doodle on serious posters that are about illness and death.

Themes

• Adverts-  because the poem is about an advert of a wonen in Presatyn
• Disatisfaction
• Deacy
• Time
• Sex
• Attitudes to women 

Structure

The poem has three stanzas, each containing 8 lines. The rhyme scheme for the poem is ABCABDCD,

 

 

Essential Beauty

Another poem about the problems of advertising, this links well to ‘Sunny Prestatyn’ and ‘Send No
Money’.

Themes :

• Envy
• Adverts  

In the first line, we’re presented with a familiar image: “In frames as large as rooms.” The images on billboards (hoardings) are compared to rooms. Rooms, from other poems like ‘Mr Bleaney’ and ‘Ambulances’, are like containers that hold our lives, and these billboards are containers of life too – although there is a distinct difference between the lives they portray and real lives.

As we move through the stanza, we’re presented with a number of bizarre images, allusions to advertisements that would have been pasted on hoardings at “the ends of streets”. Hull was bombed heavily during the Second World War, and was left riddled with holes. Into these, rather than rebuilding, appeared many billboards.

Images of “giant loaves”; “screen graves with custard” means that a custard hoarding hides the cemetery. Advertisements for “motor-oil and cuts of salmon” (fine cuisine in the 1950s) “cover slums.” “High above the gutter, / A silver knife sinks into golden butter” – one of Larkin’s absurd comical rhymes.

The bizarrely comical juxtaposition of the adverts and real life shows how adverts seem to “block” the bleak reality of life. They “perpetually” depict how “life should be”, yet the “should” gives away how different it is. Perhaps, Larkin suggests, they screen a reality that we don’t want to face.

In the next few lines, Larkin explores just how advertisements work on people.

Well-balanced families, in fine
Midsummer weather, owe their smiles, their cars,
Even their youth, to that small cube each hand
Stretches towards.

As modern readers, we’re still familiar with “that small cube” – the OXO advert. Adverts suggest that by buying their items, a person can have all those extra wonderful things, “smiles,” “cars,” and “youth.” The comfortable images, such as the Ovaltine advert with “deep armchairs / Aligned to cups at bedtime” “Reflect none of the rained-on streets and squares”, despite the fact that they “They dominate outdoors”.

In the second stanza, the reality of life is painted: where “nothing’s made / As new or washed quite clean”. They radiate “pure coldness to our live imperfect eyes” – they look down on our imperfection, cold, mocking.

In the world of the adverts, “dark rafted pubs / Are filled with white-clothed ones from tennis-clubs” (the impersonal pronoun “ones” augments the upper-class image presented), yet the juxtaposition to the real world is even more marked: “the boy puking his heart out in the Gents just missed them.” Heartbroken(?), just drunk(?), the youth of the “boy” makes his “puking” image even more pitiful. It seems, in his naivety, he has been taken in by the adverts promises, found them empty, and has been brought crashing down.

Yet, adverts work upon all, for we jump to the image of the old, “as pensioners paid / A halfpenny more for Granny Graveclothes’ Tea / To taste old age”. The image of “dying smokers” is just as pitiful: they are killing themselves due to the “that unfocused she / No match lit up”. The “she”, who walks “as if on moment”, alludes to the Bible, and Jesus’ walking on water, suggesting that the dying smokers revere her as a god (and perhaps, as Larkin was an atheist, she is just as phoney). Alluring women were used to sell cigarettes, but no “drag” “ever brought nearer” that unattainable fantasy that smoking would attract women.

Through adverts, just like in ‘Sunny Prestatyn’, we are conned into believing there is a better world. As advertising is a big part of society, Larkin shows that a big part of society is based upon deception.

Mr Bleaney

In "Mr. Bleaney", Larkin delves into the severity of a life hardly lived.  The language is drab, similar to the fraying curtains in the deceased Mr. Belaney's room.  It is evident that Bleaney led a life of loneliness, cyclically humdrum, and eventually died in his solitude.   The poem is written through the eyes of Bleaney's landlord who, after the death of his tenant, takes Bleaney's place in a similar life of loneliness and monotony.  Larkin writes, "I'll [the landlord will] take it.' So it happens that I lie/ Where Mr .Bleaney lay, and stub my fags/ On the same saucer-souvenir, and try." The similarities between the landlord and Bleney are evident, and it seems Larkin is foreshadowing a similar demise for the landlord to that of Bleaney, whose very name sounds watery and forgettable.

“Mr. Bleaney” is a commentary on just how easy it is to fall into the trap of monotony.  We get a very detailed portrait of Mr. Bleaney—his job, routine, and lack of interests are detailed—;however, even after the specifics, his life remains entirely forgettable.  The landlord literally replaces Bleaney and shows that loneliness and disinterest—similar to quicksand—are capable of slowly suffocating those who do not expect them.

His final lines reiterate his intention with the work.  “That how we live measures our own nature, 
And at his age having no more to show 
Than one hired box should make him pretty sure 
He warranted no better, I don't know.”  Evidently, it does not matter whether or not Larkin’s readers truly understand the inner workings of Bleaney.  His mind may have been great and he may have been an admirable man; however, he was judged on how he lived, what he actually accomplished, or in Bleaney’s case, failed to accomplish.  Good intentions equate to emptiness, similar to what Bleaney had to show at the end of his life.

 Larkin, in some ways similar to ‘Self’s the Man’ adopts the persona of a middle class man like Mr Bleaney, one, though, who looks down upon the other. All the prior analysis of Mr Bleaney, to add a layer of irony to the poem, is filtered through this persona’s eyes, and not necessarily ‘true’.

The Importance of Elsewhere

The poem The Importance of Elsewhere includes three stanza, each with four lines. The themes consist of Time and isolation and relates to the poem 'Here' because it is opposite to it.

Before he came to Hull, Larkin worked in a library in Belfast, where the inspiration for this poem “lonely in Ireland” comes from. He did, however, dislike travel and being away from England, though as this poem demonstrates, it does have advantages.

In the first stanza, and into the second, the persona explores the idea of being “elsewhere”. “Strangeness” there “made sense”, because when we're “elsewhere”, it makes sense to be an outsider and stranger. “Salt rebuff of speech” is a description of the harsh northern Irish accent, and Larkin likes that it is “Insisting so on difference” – for him, it is a relief to not have to be the same as the people around him. He says That it is ok to be lonley in another country because that is what is expected when u walk into  different culture.

The second stanza describes Belfast, evoking all the senses: “draughty streets” (touch), “archaic smell” (smell), “herring-hawker’s cry” (hearing). In some ways, the description is similar to the “fishy-smelling / Pastoral” in ‘Here’. Though different, Larkin feels he has an excuse for that difference in “To prove me separate, not unworkable”.

 In the third stanza,“Living in England has no such excuse”, however. Notice the pronoun usage which also augments the difference: “Their streets…” and in England, these are “my customs”. In England he can't compare himself to anyone because they are like him. Larkin is meant to belong in England but he doesnt, which is why their is " no such excuse" to be lonely in England While he could get away with being antisocial in Ireland, “It would be much more serious to refuse.” The final line reminds us again of the poem ‘Here’ with its first word, and the isolation that he seeks. “Underwrites” is a legal term, meaning to guarantee or confirm; it is ironic really that only in “elsewhere” can he feel confirmed of his “existence”.

Postcard to his wife

Description 

This poem is very personal to Abse’s loss of his wife, the structure, the exclamation marks and the emotions shown make it really realistic, like he is literally calling out for his wife, begging her to come back.

Links to Larkin

Abse is writing from his own experience, whereas Larkin seems to write as an observer of other people’s lives. However Larkin has explored the themes of love and relationships in some of his poems such as in Love Songs in Age, Talking in Bed and Wild Oats. Also in this poem a huge theme is loss, this is also a theme in Larkin's poems such as in Home Is So Sad.

 Analysis 

The tone of the poem is sad, loving but lonely and Abse shows desperation to his wife, for her to come back though the fact that there is no rhyme scheme implies she can't come back, that the pattern and purpose of his life is no longer existing without her.
Postcards are written to loved ones whilst away from them, usually on holiday, to tell them what they've been doing, a personal way to communicate with someone when there's distance between each other. Abse uses a postcard to talk to his wife, a more fun way to represent his feelings without grieving. Usually on postcards the phrase 'Wish you were here' is used, and this is very literal in the poem, in fact Abse uses it as the first line of his poem. The short sentence is powerful, a sense of longing and hope, but also like the short nature of a postcard. The caesura in the first line could present the bluntness of death, that all things can't change or go back and the full stop implies Abse has to move on but also the distance between Abse and his wife, that they are now separated.
'It's a calm summer's day and the dulcamara of memory is not enough'. 'Dulcamara is the treatment for certain diseases, and this is not enough to heal his broken heart. He still suffers the pain of his loss, and Abse doesn't find comfort in the calm summer's day. The day gives him a short happiness, the sun and calm all positive surroundings however he can't forget what has happened and he can not stop grieving. 'I confess' is the unveiling of Abse's emotions, the things he found hard to say but feels he can say in his postcard. 'I know the impoverishment of self', implies he is nothing without her, and she was the only thing that held value in his life. He feels like nothing, and has no purpose anymore, but also appreciates that he got to spend his time with her when she was alive. 'The Venus de Milo is only stone' is a reference to a Greek sculpture, that God (of love and beauty) is only stone now. That it is cold, cruel and hard to touch, presenting the harsh reality of what has happened. Stone can only be broken but can't be recreated by man, like his wife and his love for her. It is just a memory, not a reality. His wife made him believe without her things have no meaning.
'So come home. The bed's too big!'' shows the desperation, trying to hold onto her by relating the issue with daily life and objects in his life as a comfort. He is fooling himself to pretend she has just gone away, and the petty issues like having extra room in the bed is a jokey complaint. This sad humour shows his loneliness. He's mourning, unable to change what has occurred but wishing it wasn't that way. 'Make excuses', makes it seem like she has just gone away, or busy, and could come back to him. Abse is trying to be light-hearted and not show he's suffering but there is clear heartbreak underneath. The second stanza includes 'we are agents in an obscure drama', a comical view that she has gone away to venture and explore 'some cryptic message'.
Abse becomes more desperate in the fourth stanza as he says, 'Anything! But come home'. Abse is crying out for his wife, and there is clear pain and frustration. 'Then we'll motor, just you, just me' beginning to dream of it just them, that he needs no one else in his life. Abse just wants to be alone with his wife, and he can't cope alone. He describes the romantic adventure of following the 'twisting narrow lanes', the imagery so detailed he's already done this with his wife and wants to repeat the past. 'Wild business' implies to us that the flowers and people are free and able to go wherever they wish however business suggests control and restriction. Placing the words together implies that perhaps this enjoyment of going on a journey is out of their control. The 'roses and clematis' represent beauty, and she is beauty to him.
The fourth stanza shows this dream world that Abse longs for. 'Mimic the old gods who enacted the happy way to be holy' could suggest that love is the path to happiness and that the old gods who represent love were most happy, and he needs his wife to be happy again. 'Holy' and 'old gods', implies that religion places big role in life, that it's used as a comfort and to help cope with hard times. Abse refers to his wife as 'dear', an affectionate name to represent the closeness he had to her. He describes himself as 'uxorious', meaning wife in Latin, and he misses her greatly, 'absence can't make Abse's heart grow fonder'. This genetic saying is put ironically, that death is the biggest absence and it makes him desperate to have her back. This is the reality to life and love.

Two Photographs

Theme:

Abse looks at the passing of time and memories, old-age and identity and history compared to the present, using photographs to reflect on the past.

Content:

The persona looks through old photographs to find his two grandmothers, Doris and Annabella, and reminisces about them. Larkin compares the two women.

Analysis:


The rhyme scheme and structure of the poem is uneven and irregular, like memories and how time constantly changes things, like the portrayal of memories and people.
The two women are described in the first stanza. Annabella is described as 'slim', 'vulnerable' and 'pretty', compared to Doris who is 'portly', 'formidable' and 'handsome'. Abse lets the reader know straight away that the two women are different, recalling their appearance that reflects their personality. Annabella seems to be attractive, innocent and feminine unlike Doris who seems nice, pleasant but 'handsome'. Abse describes how both women dress, Annabella a 'demure black frock with an amber brooch', and Doris 'a lacy black gown with a string of pearls'. Annabella is more subtle and elegant, effortless in her clothes. She is reserved, modest and almost shy through her clothes compared to Doris who wears lace, a seductive material that's bold and extravagant with the pearls. Annabella wears a 'frock' whereas Doris wears a 'gown', suggesting that Annabella could be younger and more vibrant than the other grandmother that's older and mature. Doris's clothing description is in the second stanza, implying that there is a big separation to the women's likenesses. Abse only describes the physical memory of the photograph, only based on an image not by an actual memory.
In the second stanza Abse describes the date and location of the photographs. One 'marked Ystalyfera 1880 the other Bridgend 1890'. Both are from Wales, however the women aren't labelled to one location which suggests that Abse doesn't know, and lacks that memory of the women. The final line of this stanza, 'Both were to say, 'Cheese'; one, defiant, said 'Chalk!'', implies the different personalities, though we don't know which woman is 'defiant'. The women are like chalk and cheese, complete opposites. One woman is more eccentric, unlike the other who is reserved, mostly like Doris to shout 'Chalk!' Abse could be questioning the reader to see if they match appearance to personality, stereotyping people to dress how they act and likewise.
The third stanza focuses more on the personalities of the women. They talk in different accents and their eating habits are outlined. Annabella 'fasted - pious, passive, enjoyed small talk'. She is religious, feminine and polite, good company to be around. Doris 'feasted - pacy, pushy, would never pray. Ate pork!' The repetition makes Doris sound bold, rude, fat and quite rebellious. Eating pork was shocking to Jewish families, forbidden for their religion. Doris doesn't conform to religion, and Annabella 'told Doris she was damned', suggesting she didn't agree with her, or they didn't like each other. 'I liked Doris, I liked Annabella, though Doris was bossy and Annabella daft'. Abse loved them both, despite their contrasts and faults.
In the fourth stanza recalls a dream with both women in, standing 'back to back, not for the commencement of a duel but to see who was taller'. This suggests a rivalry and competition between the women. They don't to fight but constantly compare themselves with each other. The tone now shifts from being light-hearted to depressing. The sensory memory of 'Eat de Cologne', is part of the stereotypical view of old women, 'buns of grey hair, of withered rose'. These memories of their age 'seem illusory, fugitive, like my dream'. They are just memories, a dream that will only survive through just the photograph because they will be forgotten. 'Sieved through leaky curtains and disappears when and where that sunbeam goes', suggests that memories can go at any time, and come back in thin glances, or occasionally. Nostalgia is unpredictable, and ambiguous. 'Sieved' and 'leaky' imply that time covers memories and only old memories can seep through, details lost and forgotten.
The last stanza is cynical and philosophical, a depressing view of death. 'Two old ladies once uxoriously loved, what's survived?' The women were once loved now they are forgotten, a missed fondness that has come to an end when they die. Abse suggests that only physical items remain to keep them alive, like 'an amber brooch, a string of pearls, two photographs'. This view is sad, that everything is stored in material objects to only view their appearance and their personality is left behind. Abse talks about time, and 'my children's grandchildren' will not remember him, so he 'never lived'. Dead exists in the minds of people and within memories who knew and loved them, if you forget about your family and don't tell younger people then they no longer exist.

Links to Larkin 

Self's the Man links to this poem due to how the two women are contrasted together in the third stanza. The words of their descriptions are placed in the listing device to come across as being far more powerful.
 Larkins poem of Reference Back is able to be similar with Abse with how their is something that triggers of the memory before. For Larkin it was the music sheets whilst in Abse it was the two photographs.
Home Is So Sad and also Mr Bleaney link in well due to how they two women are portrayed as when time and age occur within the poem. Both poems link in due to the description of an unloved house that is messy and alone.
For Sidney Bechet- a celebration of life
love Songs in Age- memory through objects
Wild Oats- Comparing Women
Altogether we see various similarities between the two poets and also see the difference of Larkin placing a more negative aspect of women unlike Abse who is more positive.

The Death of Aunt Alice

Description 

The poem tells the tale of the deceased Aunt Alice, and how she did peculiar and odd acts in her lifetime, ultimately resulting into her death. Moreover, the poem also clarifies how many things used by us in our daily lives are but paths to death, such as Cars, Aeroplanes and Flowers. The poem concentrates on the paths to death and how they are all around us, but also how sometimes these can be quite odd, strange and funny- such as in the stanza 4. Overall, this poem is about the most things in life are waiting to pounce on us and kill us, in the many forms they may occupy- i.e Boeing Planes and how there are other ways to die, some of which are funny and odd-i.e falling down a lift.

Themes:

The Theme of this poem is death and the many paths to it, but the usage of Sarcasm and the touch of Humour is also important when considering the themes of this poem

Language (Effect on Reader):

Abse utilised an assortment of words in a well-considered style, to both introduce sarcasm and to further push this message across of death. Words such as "Spectacular" and "Fords" are most notably used for their easiness and commonness, and so as to further enforce the message. Overall, the language used gives of a casual effect on the reader, and makes the poem seem casual-despite the theme of death.

Imagery (Similes/Metaphors/Personification):

There are many, many images given off in the poem; from Fords to Concrete-Mixers: much imagery is created by Abse. Moreover, most (if not all) important events are accompanied with an adjective so as to give further depth to them, like "pale saints" and "tall stories".

Sound (Rhythm):

There is no rhyme scheme in this poem, all throughout out- such is the same for any sound effect; which is also non-existent.

Structure (Form):

The Poem is around the place- scruffy at times. While it does follow a strict 6 Line a Stanza rule, sometimes Stanzas are sub-headed as points and sometimes words are capitalised (i.e "SPECTACULAR"), whereas others are followed by a random exclamation mark. There are 5 of these Stanzas, all of which are similar in length.

Tone (Narrator):

The tone of the poem is somewhat casual, with notes of sarcasm to battle out the underlying theme of death and the many ways in which it looms over us. Moreover, it seems that someone who knew this "Aunt Alice" and was present at the Funeral is telling the story, one who knew much about her and her wish of an "opera-ending". The sarcasm in the poem accounts for the casual tone, and may itself be an indication of another path to death.