A Figure of 8

Theme:

The poem talks about rebellion, and cynicism, a young person's attempt to break free and express their opinions within the classroom.

Content:

The poem is about the daily routine of young student in the classroom, who's rebelling against what they've been taught at school.

Analysis:

The title of the poem, is the shape of the infinity sign, going round in circles and showing the cyclical nature of life. The life of the persona is a routine and repetitive, like the motion of the infinity sign, and feels like that their life is revolving around education. A figure of 8 could mean that the persona, a figure, is 8 years old.
The persona refers to his classroom as 'Mr Theophilus's jail', suggesting that the classroom is restrictive and confined like a prison. They can't escape, and feel trapped, unable to express their opinion and can only listen and do what they're told, having to be taught not learning things for themselves. 'The boy half listens to a story of royalty-loving Christopher Robin'. This is a reference to Winnie the Pooh, showing the persona's young age to this children's book. The teacher is teaching the students about stories, innocent and patriotic things that don't relate to the reality outside the classroom. The persona also 'half-listens' implying he's bored, doesn't care and is distracted, maybe daydreaming about something else. His mind works independently, no matter what the teacher tries to tell him. Abse makes the tone comical by 'his friend, Fatty Jones', a childish nickname for a classmate. Fatty Jones sings 'God bless the Prince of Wales!', a Welsh hymn.
The second stanza talks about escaping from school, 'free, at last', from the mundane, repetitive classroom. This exaggerates how happy the persona is to get away, 'arms horizontal'. The child is so cheerful and excited he 'jet-roars out' like a plane, escaping 'jail'. Flying away shows a liberation, lack of restriction and freedom to do anything as the persona 'loops the loop, flies to Africa to see naked women'. This shows the child is fantasising about adult themes, inappropriate for his age, and thinks about things that are avoided at school. He thinks independently and is growing up. However this view is shifted by to the persona's immaturity when he comically 'farts H2SS'.
The third stanza is a contrast to the childlike first stanza, a more depressing and realistic view of the world. This stanza is short and dramatic, 'someone has bombed the park'. The child could be playing war games, and this makes the persona sinister to think these things, a vivid imagination to have. However this could show that the child is growing up, and not so naivety towards the bad events, the ones teachers avoid to tell children and instead tell fairytale stories. This idea is continued in stanza four, 'both the swings are on fire, the empty see-saw is charred', destruction to playground objects that children would use. This is implies that his childish views are being burnt down, and reality is overcoming his thoughts. 'The enemy is a brute, the enemy must be foiled', threats of war and violence, which are quite childish, playing games where the bad guys can just be beaten. 'The wooden horses are running wild' is like the persona's self, running wild and hard to control because he's finding freedom.
The persona mentions a 'sorcerer' and 'spaceship', all imagined childish thoughts. But the persona comes 'safely... comes home to base'. Home suggests protection and safety, a secure place for a child compared to the outside world.
The last stanza involves the persona chalking 'across the garden shed FUCK WINNIE THE POOH'. Symbolising rebellion and a hatred towards the things he's been taught, the ideals of society and the false stories he hears in the classroom. The child is fed up with hearing untruths, 'FUCK MR THEOPHILUS TOO', and doesn't like education. The last stanza is comical to how people will try to teach children and form a path for them but they can't be taught and protected forever, that they instead break free.

Links to Larkin:

A Study of Reading Habits - rebellion, dislike to childish stories
Sunny Prestatyn - graffiti and rebellion

Sons

Theme:

The poem is about the relationship between father and son, and is highlighted with themes of growing up, youth, time and memories.

Content:

In this poem the persona looks back on his youth but compared himself to his son and his younger self. The similarities between himself and his son make him remember his young self.

Analysis:

The first line of the poem uses alliteration and sibilance, 'sarcastic sons slam front doors', a jokey tone towards his son's moody swings and anger. The persona finds his behaviour amusing, knowing that these teenage things were something he'd do. 'I think of Cardiff outskirts where, once, captured acres played', the persona looks back on how he was in his youth. The persona reflects on his childish, fun games, 'acres' are 'small tamed gardens' suggesting his imagination that his ran wild, still being naive and foolish. 'The concrete way', solid traditions and rules is like society's expectations and ideals that have 'supplanted grass, wild flowers', growing up replacing his youth and having to change. 'Now my son is like that, altering everyday', that his son is now acting like how he did. The son is constantly changing, maturing and growing up with time and this shows that nothing stays the same, that Abse's current self is different to his younger self.
In the second stanza, 'those new semis that seem ashamed' to describe himself. The new semi houses feel out of place and that they don't belong there. This is like the feeling of growing up and discovering yourself, something hard to do in your teenage years where you were confused and 'ashamed' if you didn't fit in. 'The frontier of Nowhere' could suggest in youth wanting to find yourself too. Nowhere is given a capital to make it a place, implying that it's somewhere everyone has been and can relate to. The 'chaos clash' of not knowing anything, of who you want to be and what you want to become. being adolescent was both 'prim and brash'. This juxtaposition of two opposites highlights the changing emotions, and a teenager's confusion of wanting to be independent but also wanting to be looked after, and being mature but acting childish. The question mark shows how uncertain growing up is.
The third stanza is quite philosophical, 'strange a London door should slam and I think thus, of Cardiff evenings'. The reference to London, where his son is currently slamming the door is the same as what he did in his hometown. In Cardiff his son shut the door because he wanted to grow up and explore the world, and the persona thinks it's strange for him to do this. Maybe it's because his son is uncomfortable and unfamiliar in this new place, an outsider. The son takes him back to his own past, and makes him remember his youth. Cardiff is described as 'ruins where ghost abide', an 'awkward Anglo-Welsh half town, half countryside', using opposites to describe his son, not knowing where he is and that he doesn't belong anywhere. He feels 'awkward', and out of place.
'Son, you are like that and I love for it', the persona empathising and understanding his son, representing the good relationship they have. 'In adult rooms the hesitant sense of not belonging quite' shows how his son is trying to be mature but is still in his youth, 'hesitant' to accept he is still a child.
The last three lines seem like a warning, 'Too soon maturity will switch off your night thrust fake electric roots, the nameless becoming wrongly named and your savage darkness bright'. The persona looks back with perspective, his warning is that this will happen to his son too and he should watch what he does. It could imply that his son is going down the wrong path, and the pessimistic view that he will turn out like his father makes it seem like the son's future is limited. 'Darkness bright' is an oxymoron, suggesting that they are together and similar people but are totally different and will have different futures.

Links to Larkin:

Dockery & Sons - father and son relationship, looking back on youth, highlighting similarities
Reference Back - shared love of music reminds the mother of her youth like the persona in Sons reminded by youth by son
Love Songs in Age - reflection of past

Postcard To His Wife

Theme:

Abse highlights themes of love and marriage within this poem, but reminiscing on his wife but shows that there is an enduring nature to this love and that he misses her. There is a theme of death and grief.

Content:

This is a personal poem about Abse's loss of his wife, who died at age of 78 in a car crash (Abse was there by just wounded). He wrote this poem shortly after the accident, and Abse is the persona in this poem.

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:

For Sidney Bechet - a celebration of life
Love Songs in Age - memory through objects
Wild Oats - comparing women

Terrible Angels

Theme/Content:

This poem is about war, and the effects on war. The poem reminisces on when they were younger and how their father used to fight in the war, collecting all these medals, has returned to show his son.

Analysis:

Terrible Angels is an oxymoron, a paradox that angels are meant to sent from heaven, the place of complete bliss and peace, a paradise to be, yet they are terrible, which suggests destruction and corruption. Angels are flawless, graceful and innocence, the opposite to terrible. The angels are prayed to by soldiers to save themselves from the enemy however this is ironic because to live, others must die, and this becomes a tragedy.
'One bedtime' suggests the persona is a child, yet this is written in past tense which could mean that Abse is reflecting on his childhood and his father. The medals had 'pretty coloured ribbons', like toys and play things, his father displays this as a prize, a proud possession. They are a symbol of achievement, and are there still as a memory of the war, something that is very much still in his life, represented by the metals.
'Elite and puissant expedition from God' is having great power/influence in higher class, the expedition given from God suggests that going to war was righteous, and this was seen as courageous and moral for men back then. Religion has a large influence on the soldiers that fought.
The 'angels of Mons', the Battle of Mons which was the first major battle in WW1, are described to make 'horses bolt and flocks of meat-snatching birds to rise'. The 'invisible presence' of the angels can symbolise the war itself, the nature of war or religion, how angels are seen as a comfort to protect the soldiers in difficult times and help them defeat the enemy however this is ironic because the angels scare the 'horses'. They symbolise death, from heaven themselves, the soldiers are looking for protection against death by wanting others to die. The 'meat-snatching birds' are vultures, watching over the soldiers waiting for them, 'circle around and around like a carousel'. Death is eternal, forever and part of the cycle of life meaning that the soldiers will never escape it. They might escape death in the war but will be haunted by others deaths.
'But war coarsens (he said) even genteel angels', suggests that war will make things vulgar and unpleasant because even the most kindest, gentle angels are corrupted by war, that fighting can scar them. 'When they spoke it was the silence of gas, amen; when they sang it was the shrapnel striking helmets', is a metaphor, that the soldiers would wish upon destructive deaths for the enemy to die and for them to live. Gas is a silent killer, that death can creep up slowly upon some unlike shrapnel striking helmets which is quite loud, metal clashing and sounds more painful. The protection of the soldiers relied on the death of the enemy to survive. 'Stealthily visible' is an oxymoron, that if you are stealthy you shouldn't be seen because you're quick and agile. The angels are stealthy because they can kill easily and unexpectedly, yet this is visible to everyone because a death man will just lay there, the remains of a life.
The angels are described as 'cold', 'bold and bloodthirsty' and 'thrilled' by the haunting 'screams' coming from the soldiers on the battlefield. This suggests that the angels are corrupt, they have evil elements about them but are still described as angels which is the complete opposite. The destruction and death of the enemy was comforting throughout the war because it meant survival for another, yet in any other case this would be shocking and terrible. The father says that these show 'true facsimiles of men', that satisfaction from death and selfishness of survival was what men were really about. Men were like this before civilisation, that their true madness was uncovered.
The final stanza is only two lines, an after thought because of the brackets used, which makes these lines stand out. (My father, invalided home, was told he know more about angels than was healthy.) The father seemed to be too aware of the angels, knowing too much of the war so that the haunting nature of war has scarred him. Though the war was behind them, the memory still remains, an obsession that he couldn't let go off. This is the real, horrific affect of war. War has taken a toll on him and left him weak and scarred.

Naturally The Foundations Will Bear Your Expenses

Theme:

This poem includes the idea of war, and remembrance day which includes the reflection of those who fought in the past. There is an element of travelling and education throughout the poem.

Content:

The persona is dislikable, and rude towards a historical event as he sits in a taxi and the events of remembrance day are making him late for his plane. His views are controversial, with no sentiment, pity or feeling for humanity towards the past.

Analysis:

Bearing 'your expenses' is taking away the difficulties, and people take advantage to this because expenses make us view life cynically. Expenses could include transport and accommodation.
'Catch my comet' describes the persona travelling, by plane, to somewhere far away from where he is. The 'my' makes the persona sound possessive and dislikable.
'One dark November day' shows that the poem is about remembrance day, the 11th November, the day WW1 soldiers are respected and remembered. The 'dark' suggests that the persona sees this with a miserable, pessimistic, dull view, like it's just another day. In the first stanza Abse compares this day to all the places he has been, a different world to what he sees. The persona brags about these places and people, 'the sunshine of Bombay', reading 'pages Berkeley' which implies that the persona is academic, and the 'Third' is the most intellect BBC radio program of the time, showing that the persona is showing off.
'Crowds, colourless and careworn' an alliteration that becomes scathing, snobbish and makes the persona's surrounding seem bland and uninteresting. The person doesn't understand why this is making his taxi late until he is 'airborne'. 'The day when Queen and Minister and Band of Guards and all still act their solemn-sinister wreath-rubbish in Whitehall', suggests the authority, and higher status people pay their respects as a fake performance, just to follow their duties by 'acting'. There is some irony that the Queen sympathises with these soldiers but she was the one that sent the men to their death, a kind of hypocrisy. 'Solemn' implies that Larkin is expected to be respectful but instead he is shocking and against it. 'Wreath-rubbish' is rude and critical of remembrance day, aimed at the upper class.
'It used to make me throw up' is an exaggeration on how Larkin thinks the event is sickening, 'these mawkish, nursery games' are just done because of tradition, done thoughtlessly. The persona is rude to the day, a pointless symbol, devoid of its true meaning. 'O When will England grow up?' is rude to the monarchy, a parade of grief and how it's acted out, England wasting their time on something they need to forget.
The persona name drops in the last stanza also, a rude, critising character.

Imitations

Theme/Content:

Imitations is a poem about relationships with father and son, and Abse looks at his son and sees himself, and is also reminded that he is a duplicate of his own father. The poem talks about ageing and how time affects relationships and the family as well as reflecting on the past.

Analysis:

• 'Imitations' means a likeness, impression, or clone of something, likewise what his son is to him.
• 'This afternoon room' is the the room between light and dark, between hope and darkness and shows the transition of growing up, seeing his teenage son in front of him. 'The other side of the glass' the invisible barrier of age that can make people less connected, stops the room from joining the cold outside. 'Snowflakes whitewash the shed roof and the grass', covered in a blanket of snow, so everything looks fresh, pure and clean. 'Surprised April' could be ambiguous, either the name of his wife or that the spring is surprised that this cold winter has lasted so long. 'An approximate man' at 16 shows he's closer to the actual, he's growing up and Abse feels no longer like much of a father anymore. He describes his son as a 'chameleon', changing colour to adapt to the background and fit in to society, his 'soft diamond' an oxymoron that makes him sound beautiful, hard but also forgiving and soft when you get to know him. 'My deciduous evergreen', deciduous meaning the falling of maturity or the dropping of a part no longer needed is the son growing up and blossoming, the evergreen staying green through all the seasons so his son will forever be his child no matter how much he changes, he's withholding the important things but losing his youth.
• 'Eyes half closed' half asleep, between reality and his dreams, he 'listens to pop forgeries' the upbeat unoriginal songs that the persona doesn't understand his son listening to. The persona doesn't really know his son, and they don't discuss his personal life, whether he 'dreams of some school Juliet I don't know', hoping his son has a romantic side in his youth. 'A blur of white blossom, whiter snow' is more innocent, the white resembling purity and youth, a more positive outlook.
• The 'immortal springtime' is an paradox, springtime one season that can't last forever and changes. The future and the past however is immortal and must continue to move forward in life. He's thinking back to when he was his son's age, 'I'm elsewhere and the age my cool son is', realising how old his son is now is the reality. 'My father alive again' is the reminiscing of when his father was alive, them both being together. (I, his duplicate) suggests he's remembered that he is similar to his father. 'Two butterflies stumble' is how the past is untouched and clear, clarified with innocence and purity, and the butterflies symbolise the soul of the departed ones. 'Elastic' is the bond that will never break, even though he's lost his father their connection is still there, and they can move apart but come back together. The future must continue to repeat the past, the cyclical action when accepting differences. 'Pass' suggests it was just a daydream, and he returns to the reality of his son now.

Links to Larkin:

Dockery and Son - memories, past, father and sons, however it is different because the past is accessible this time, both realise how time has gone past in the last stanza
Broadcast - memories and using music to reignite past memories, it joins them together

Toads Revisited

Theme:

This was written by a retired Larkin, and talks about the repetition of life and work, and the two types of people that work and don't work in society.

Content:

This poem is a follow-up to Larkin's first poem 'Toads', a second look at toadwork this poem is more mature and a positive poem on the presentation of work-avoiders. In this poem Larkin has escaped from his work desk, and looks at everything around him.

Structure:

The tone is straightforward, with hints of irony still in this poem. There is nine, four-lined stanzas with lots of half-rhymes which link different ideas together but there is no certainty in it. When a full-rhyme is used, the contrast of it is so obvious the reader takes in those sentences. The first poem had an ABAB rhyme scheme however this poem has AABB. 

Analysis:

• Toads are slimy, green, fat, ugly animals that are a metaphor for work, and the quality of toads are transferred onto work. In the earlier poem Toads to stand for something dark, that overtakes one's life in an unwelcoming, dominate way. There was a need to work, to fulfil those responsibilities and this toad-like behaviour made people unhappy with their lives. In this poem, he takes it less personally that people aren't working and that he sometimes isn't happy, and sees work as a friend now.
• In the first stanza Larkin is 'walking around the park' in the open, which 'should feel better than work'. The nature doesn't appeal to him, and he'd rather be at work than see the 'lake, sunshine, grass' all pleasant, optimistic things to see but he feels the total opposite, the 'should' suggests that reality isn't good as he expected.
• 'Not a bad place to be yet it doesn't suit me' suggests he doesn't like not working, a direct opinion which shows Larkin doesn't enjoy a content, unemployed life, and might regret not working longer.
• 'Palsied old step-takers' are snakey people that are retired, and working keeps him young which is further from death.
• 'Hare-eyed clerks with the jitters', nervous, terrified overworkers look like they could have a nervous breakdown because they are working so hard and now don't have to work and don't know what to do with their lives.
• Only the injured/sick shouldn't work, 'waxed-fleshed out patients still vague', unaware, not focussed and lost in their life. And the 'characters in long coats', all these people are connected by death.
• 'Deep in the litter-baskets' talks about the homeless, trying to scavenge up anything they see.
• 'All dodging the toad work by being stupid or weak', suggests that Larkin thinks people that don't work are like this, that they are silly and immoral and lazy. They have pathetic excuses, are mocked and Larkin becomes annoyed and judgemental towards this. 'Dodgers' are infirm, just people that watch other people live their lives, an outsider, which is sad and upsetting with no 'friends but empty chairs'. 'Think of being them!' makes not working sound like a bad thing, disgusted, dismissive and aggressive. 
• Larkin describes their passive lives, 'hearing the hours chime' 'watching the bread delivered' all to pass time, doing nothing.
• 'Turning over their failures' suggests that Larkin doesn't want to be like them, 'nowhere to go but indoors' the persona puts these ideas of unemployment on them, which is ironic because when he works he is trapped indoors.
• 'No, give me my in-tray', a command, Larkin shows he likes work in this stanza, and is content with his job. Work gives him a sense of purpose and authority, 'my' belongings at work. 
• 'When the lights come on at four at the end of another year?' is time passing.
• 'Give me your arm, old toad; Help me down Cemetery Road' shows Larkin cares about work, and likes it, he will embrace work until he dies and would rather work until then. Work however is a death sentence, and he knows he needs to work to support himself and survive

Ignorance

Theme/Content:

Ignorance is an abstract poem about religion and beliefs.

Structure:

The rhyme scheme in this poem is ABBCC.

Analysis:

• 'Ignorance' is a lack of knowledge/education, unlearned, naive attitude towards things, sometimes selfish.
• The first line of the stanza 'strange to know nothing, never to be sure' is an uncertainty towards beliefs, and Larkin questions what life is. The word 'strange' is repeated, and Larkin is quite stubborn/ignorant to other people's beliefs if they aren't concrete or justified, and this makes them strange. 'True or right or real' suggests that there is many different answers to just one question. The poem is tentative, 'someone must know', is Larkin questioning, hoping for answers and wanting answers. 
• 'Strange', the unfamiliar and unknown nature is complex, hard to understand 'Ignorance of the way things work' suggests that people take things for granted, the cost of our nature. We lack true knowledge about anything, and 'their' refers to everyone else that is searching for the answers. The 'skill at finding what they need' is everyone's attempt at survival, trying to understand life. The 'punctual spread of seed' could imply knowledge or reproduction. There is a 'willingness to change', that people adjust their beliefs to suit society or life around them or that people change over time to adapt to the world they know nothing about. 
• The last stanza is quite abstract, to 'wear such knowledge - for our flesh' implies human live for answers, and when they think they have some, or have strong beliefs they show them off and flaunt them. 'Surrounds us with its own decisions', with a lack of control, influenced by others in society. 'Yet spend all our life on imprecisions', that people aren't careful, and Larkin comments on life choices. 'That when we start to die have no idea why' suggests that people hold knowledge but have no idea really why this knowledge is, and when they die they forget about all the decisions and don't care about them so why make them in the first place.

The Importance of Elsewhere

Theme/Content:

This poem is about cultural identity, and the exploration of it and belonging. The two places of England and Ireland have different effects on the persona, one place is their home and they feel lonely and the other isn't but they feel more comfortable there. In England he has no else where that he can refer to and has no excuses.

Analysis:

• 'Importance' means required and needed, and elsewhere is needed to understand home and where he belongs to find a different place to compare home to. 
• In the first stanza Larkin explores being 'elsewhere', in Ireland. He is 'lonely' in Ireland 'since it was not his home' however the 'strangeness made sense'. He has nothing familiar to him, a stranger and outsider to this new place. 'Salt rebuff of speech' is the different accent, the harsh Irish accent. The 'difference' made him 'welcome', as if he is accepted because he doesn't belong there and has an excuse so he can try fit in instead of being expected to. After these difference were 'recognised', he was 'in touch'.
• In the second stanza he describes Belfast, their 'draughty streets', the coldness people there felt towards the outsiders, but the persona suggests he can see himself fitting in. 'The faint archaic smell of dockland like a stable', the old recognisable scent where he would stay. 'To prove me separate, not unworkable', though different, Larkin knows this won't stop him from working here and making a life for himself.
• 'Living in England has no such excuse', being at home means that it's his own fault that he didn't fit in. 'My customs and establishments' are the rules, the bored society and the expectations he has there. 'It would be much more serious to refuse', if he didn't follow these expectations he would be frowned upon, unlike if he was antisocial in Ireland it would seem ok. The last line, 'here no elsewhere underwrites my existence' implies that he loves his home but he likes Ireland because he can be himself, but at home he has to conform to society. 'Underwrite' is a legal term, meaning to confirm/affirm, and it's ironic that away from home he can 'confirm' his 'existence', he can find himself and understand who he wants to be.

Nothing To Be Said

Theme/Content:

This poem is a pessimistic one about death, and the meaning of life, fundamentally a journey towards death for everyone.

Analysis:

• In the first stanza there is a contrast in people and cultures, between civilised and primitive. 'Nations vague as weed' are those small isolated communities, 'to nomads' which are travellers with no permanent home, to Hull with 'cobble-close families in mill-towns' which brings the reader back to working class people. 
• Larkin ends the first stanza with a paradox. 'Life is slow dying'. Even though all those people seem different, they are all linked with the fact they will all die, death provides equality. The meaning of life is to live then to die, life is slow death.
• The second stanza talks about what people do with their life, to fulfil their time when they're living. 'Building, benediction' an alliteration which talks about filling time with religion, kindness and blessings don't do anything to stop progressing to death however just occupy the time.
• 'Measuring love and money... ways of slow dying' suggests that Larkin thinks that people revolve their lives around these two things, filling in the gaps between birth and death. Love and money sound materialistic because they are being measured, like an item. 
• 'Hunting pig... a garden-party' refer to upper class society and their leisure activities. This is the animalistic vs civilised, primitive compared to formal and sophisticated.
• 'Hours giving evidence on birth' implies you have to prove yourself when you're alive, to make something of yourself. This stanza links to all the different jobs in society, 'giving evidence' could be a law job, 'or birth' relates to hospitals and doctors but everyone advances on 'death equally'. The 'advance' is a zeugma, for comic effect. These things in life distract them from the inevitable and it becomes ironic that death is inescapable. 
• The last lines in the stanza shows the different views of death. 'Means nothing' suggests that some people don't care about dying, whether they believe in the afterlife or not. 'Others it leaves nothing to be said' implies people who think about life are overwhelmed, traumatised and are scared because they know they can't escape it.

Reference Back

Theme:

There is a sense of nostalgia, and family memories in the poem. Music is symbolic, yet over the course of the time it is evident there is loneliness compared to what used to be.

Content:

This poem is based on Larkin's mother, living at his mother's house and listening to the same song but in different rooms. They both share a love for the music however Larkin doesn't seem to enjoy the experience through the poem.

Analysis:

• The title 'Reference Back' is a musical term but has the idea of looking back, and remembering things.
• 'Call from the unsatisfactory hall' suggests that the presence isn't satisfying enough anymore, reality doesn't live up to the old memories they have.
• 'Played record after record, idly, wasting my time at home' shows the persona gets little pleasure from the experience and the enjambment of 'you/looked' shows that there was a difference between his lack of excitement and his mother's excitement to spend time with her son at home.
• The first stanza is quite depressing and disappointing, and the shows the reflection of time. The songs reintroduce memories for his mother which she likes however Larkin feels like he just needs to move on because he is bored.
• The second stanza looks at history and song itself. The song makes him reminisce over times in Chicago, and comments on jazz music, 'antique Negros' and 'pre-electric horn' which is like the grammarphone for blues/jazz, the music links the two eras. There is a negative tone in this stanza too that his mother is aged and he doesn't like this. The 'sudden bridge' connects his mother and him, both enjoying the music, this is a pun on another musical term. The bridge is also a metaphor for ageing, the bridge between youth to older generations. 
• 'From your unsatisfactory age to my unsatisfactory prime'  is an oxymoron. Prime means the best part of your life, yet it is unsatisfactory to him and he is no longer better than his mother's age because they are both unhappy. 
• There is a philosophical shift in the last stanza. 'Long perspectives' are all the memories and instances of youth which Larkin hopes for yet his reflections are pessimistic and it takes effort to be that sad, making memories pointless. The long memories are unsuited, the happy ones are comfort and Larkin thinks they drag him down, and remind him how disappointed he is now. This is taunting and mocking, Larkin becomes obsessed over regrets because he knows once you make choices you can't go back. 'They link us to our losses', the things he didn't do and can't do anymore. 'Blindingly undiminished', raw and fresh, Larkin used to see life with youthfulness, hope and optimism but growing up changed things, and if he stayed childish maybe it would have stayed that way. 

Days

Theme/Content:

Days about time, and the meaning of life, all personified. The persona questions then answers himself in the stanza. The poem questions what we are living for and whether we're doing anything worthwhile in our lives.

Analysis:

• The poem has a monotone voice, as if we do the same things again.
• 'What are days for?' is like a childish question, whereas the next few lines are like the answers an adult would give, a simple answer to a simple question. 
• 'Time and time over' suggests that we can't stop time, it repeats itself, and what we do is a waste of time with no control because we live in a cycle. This is quite dark, and that life has a deeper message than just the plain one that's given.
• 'To be happy in' implies that happiness is fundamental, that this succession of days where nothing much happens in them has to be enjoyed because there is not much else.
• 'Where can we live but days?' is a hint at Atheism, that our life is limited however Christians would say there is heaven and life after death. 
• The next stanza 'brings the priest and the doctor', the ones that hold different views on death and could maybe solve it. The poem suggests no solution however. The priest believes in life after death, embraces the current life but sees a new life afterwards which is a better, dayless existence. The doctor on the other hand cures people and tries to help the person keep the days they have, because they could be over soon. He increases the days, and the ill have less days to live. The doctors are the last people to see others before death too, and the first to see new life. 
• 'Running over the fields' is like freedom, the natural cycle, but trampling over nature which is inevitable.

Water

Theme/Content:

This poem is based on religion, and the poem Water talks about the different roles in religion that water has. The poem is abstract, and as Larkin was an atheist he has strong beliefs that discusses religious ideas.  

Analysis:

• The poem is in a regular structure, flowing like water and how religious beliefs are repeated throughout history.
• 'Water' is symbolised to be pure, for cleansing and is essential for life. Though water is transparent and is not solid, implying Larkin sees no solidity or truth to religion.
• 'To construct a religion' suggests that Larkin doesn't believe in religion, that they are made and are false, religion is just a man-made idea.
• 'Fording' is a shallow place, an escapism for people to forget their worries/problems and not to fear death, as if they can't face the truth. This is where baptisms take place too, being born again. 
• 'To dry, different clothes' is alliteration that people where clothes designed for religious visitings like church. They have to renew themselves, and cleanse themselves from before, suggesting that this means the people are artificial and use religion as a cover-up. 
• This poem focuses on Christian beliefs, a 'liturgy' refers to holy communion.
• Descriptions of water become more intense through the poem, 'sousing' is soaking/drenching and 'furious devout drench' is quite aggressive. Larkin wants to wash religion with water to purify it.
• In the last stanza a still 'glass of water' is raised in the 'east', which suggests the rising sun, rebirth and beginnings. Water has 'any-angled light', an adjusted, impure hope unlike natural light. 'Congregate endlessly' is like a congregation at a church. 
• The poem never mentions religion which questions whether life questions things beyond religion. All religions have gaps and are ironic and the simplicity of water suggests that religion overcomplicates things. Religion is no longer spiritual, it's strictly controlled in a 'glass of water', that the power of religion manipulates people.

First Sight

Theme:

The poem talks about the circle of life, birth and death and rebirth. Optimism usually manifests in nature, especially in the cycles of nature and seasons become important, especially to give hope and faith in things.

Content:

First Sight describes lambs in the cold winter, and the hope of spring.

Analysis:

• Lambs are a religious symbol for youth, innocence and purity, born in the spring the poem is based in the late winter. They are the sign of new life, and hold hope. The 'vast unwelcome' of the cold weather is unkind, the season has no opportunity for grazing and they have to starve and try to survive, difficult for young animals. 'Sunless' suggests that the lambs see they have no hope, that life is cold and miserable. 'Outside the fold', the home they live where sheep are kept, there is a 'wretched width of cold'. Beyond the fence there is worse, that the lambs could not bear. 
• 'Waiting too' is Spring, 'Earth's immeasurable surprise. This season is the promise of hope/change, a nicer atmosphere that is more optimistic and changes the bad things into more positive good things. The lambs do not know of this to come, the world just seems dull and empty at the moment. The lambs have only seen the bleakness of winter.

Send No Money

Theme:

This poem is a symbolic poem about time, which is a personification/anthropomorphism throughout the poem. There is a difference between the illusions and reality for the persona. Regret and ageing are also themes within the poem, the persona is growing up and moving on from youth.

Content:

The poem is based on a dodgy advert that uses the phrase 'send no money'. The persona in the poem is young, and doesn't understand life so gets 'time' to explain things for him.

Structure:

The rhyme scheme in this poem is: ABCDEFEF, like that when life begins everything is new and different yet throughout life you become to understand things and how life is repetitive and normal is now.

Analysis:

• The title 'Send No Money' is an imperative, don't send help, I can do it for myself.
• 'The fobbed impendent belly of Time' describes standing under the watch-line, the great expanse of time that has a belly which makes it sound living, and almost frightening. Time has a capital letter, as if it were an object/person.
• 'Tell me the truth, I said' suggests the persona wants answers, and are willing to be taught and develop an understanding for life. These imperatives make the persona sound eager, desperate and competitive.
• 'All the other lads there were itching to have a bash', they want to get into life and experience things for themselves.
• 'So he patted my head', time is a personification and is patronising towards the persona.
• 'There's no green in your eye', this implies that the persona isn't envious towards the other boys. He's naive and optimistic about life, asking all the universal questions
• Time tells him to 'sit here and watch the hail' to watch life pass and wait for time to affect him. The persona is gullible and thanks time and sits down and waits like he says, it's quite childlike, polite and simplistic.
• 'Half life is over now' which suggests that the last stanza is when the persona has grown up and lived half his life. 'Full face on dark mornings' implies he sees it all now, that life is quite cynical and sad compared to before. 'The bestial visor' is like a beastly, savage cover helmet, that time is scary, 'bent in' means destroyed and damage. Life was violent, and doesn't live up to the happiness he felt before, quite depressing in fact. The persona reflects and looks back at what sitting around has shown - 'sod all'. They realise they have learnt nothing, and are disappointed with this. Like adverts, they don't live up to expectation. The last two lines of the stanza include lots of alliteration of the letter T, a harsh, bitter sound. This shows the fact that he kept trying to find answers, the repetition of this. The persona's youth was wasted, and they regret the loss of time, and it becomes ironic to look back on childhood.

The Large Cool Store

Theme:

Clothing and fashion are the theme of this poem, watered down fashion at affordable rates, however Larkin comments on the working class and the illusions they have, that they think they're a better person if they try to dress better.

Content:

In this poem Larkin describes a shop selling cheap, slightly dated, fashionable clothes that Larkin doesn't approve/like, and looks down upon the people that wear them.

Structure:

The poem has an ABABA rhyme scheme throughout, like the lives of these working class people. It's repetitive, monotone and boring.

Analysis:

• The title 'The Large Cool Store', has two connotations for the word 'cool', that the clothes are cold, grim and just stored or that they are fashionable and trendy. The place is ambigious, unknown to the reader which store it could be. 'Cheap' is a good thing for the buyers but its more aligned with tacky and worthless. 'Simple sizes plainly' could describe the people buying them, the working class people, and Larkin looks down upon these ordinary, plain people. The colours described 'browns and greys, maroon and navy' are simplistic and dull, bleak and horrible to look at.
• In the second stanza Larkin imagines the lives of the shoppers. 'Who leave at down low terraced houses' the low meaning both physically low and also that they are of a lower status than he. 'Factory, yard and site' the places that these people could work is described as condescending. The 'heaps of shirts and trousers' make the clothes sound like rubbish, just dumped there. 'Machine-embroidered' suggests that the women are creating themselves through materialism, and use the clothes as a facade.
• Yet their clothes are contrasted with the 'Modes For Night', 'lemon, sapphire, moss-green, rose' all clothes that are fashionable, colourful and vibrant. These are seperate from the boring colours. 'Baby Dolls and Shorties' are fashionable bedclothes. The woman come alive at night, and become sexy and seductive. 'Flounce in clusters' is like the women that strut and show their clothes however are like clones, grouped together by the same fashion.
• 'They share that world' of fashion and class. The 'their' is used to seperate them from the upper class that they try to be.
• 'Seperate and unearthly love is' implies that Larkin doesn't understand love or women, that it's alien to him and becomes fake. The women can't reach these ideals and become unnatural because they try so hard. It's like a woman's nature to dream, mainly the younger people fantasising, 'young unreal wishes'. They want to live these fantasies because they have nothing better, and Larkin reduces love because it seems to be 'synthetic, new and natureless', fake and cold, a lacking fulfillment of expectstion, just an ideal and false impression that men have. Men build up female image only to be disappointed.

Sunny Prestatyn

Theme:

This poem is quite comical to begin with, however Larkin moves to sinister the most defaced the poster becomes. Themes in this poem include graffiti and rebellion but also the sexism of women displayed in the image.

Content:

The poem is about a poster being vandalised, the holiday pin-up is defaced and abused so much that the poster is covered by a cancer poster in the end.

Analysis:

• The poem starts with a quotation from an advert, 'Come to Sunny Prestatyn', a common pin-up holiday poster that appealed to people so much they would visit the location for a holiday. 'Sunny' implies cheerful, happy and optimistic place. The coastal scene with a 'hotel with palms' and 'hunk of coast', is overexaggerated but an attractive paradise. This is the dream life for people that want an escape, however Prestatyn is overshadowed with a poster of 'pin-up'.
• The presentation of the woman is made her into perfection, focussing on her sexuality to promote Prestatyn. 'Tauntened white satin' shows off her figure, and Larkin degrades the woman he sees. Her 'thighs' and 'breast-lifting arms' make the girl seem sexy and suggestive, she sells the holiday with her beauty.
• The poster is described to be 'slapped up', rude and violent, or like 'slapping' on makeup which makesher seem fake, her beauty abused by just being chucked up without care. Larkin contrasts the idyllic world of advertisement, that the sexualised images of women create violence amongst men as they fight for these ideals and this perfect image is nothing more than an unattainable dream.
• After the humourous opening, the poem becomes darker in the second stanza through humour. The defacing of the poster is cheap, child-like and rude. People seem to have enjoyed defaced her, violation and physically abusing it. 'Scored well in' and covered in 'scrawls' makes the opinion of the poster uncared for, it is systemtically destroyed from head to toe. 'Scored' could be like the men have won the woman, or like it's been cut with a knife. This is sinister, in a hated manner it becomes disturbing and violent. The perfect face is ruined by 'snaggle-toothed' and 'boss-eyed' with 'huge tits' and a 'fissured crotch'', almost as if the woman has been raped.
•  Larkin balances on humour and disgust, the lighthearted tone of the poem makes him seem jokey. The final stanza of the poem includes 'she was too good for this life' and that she 'asked for it', as if something a sex attacker would say to blame the woman. Larkin jokes about the crude doodles, there is no value to her beauty. The defacing of this poster could seem as if the men are just displaying the honest truth, that the posters are fake and not what real woman look like.
• The poem concludes with an image of death, the defaced poster is replaced with 'Now Fight Cancer is there'. This is poster is more respected, no sexist attitde that can be viewed when men feel okay to deface a woman valued only because of her looks and Larkin would care less however they wouldn't deface a disease, charity poster. This poster will last longer, and it fits better into society because the escape from reality is gone and the brutal reality would be understood rather than the perfection.

MCMXIV

Theme:

Larkin challenges the ideas of war memorials, and the irony people held on war. The man are hopeful and excited however everyone that reads the poem will know that wars result in death and destruction. The poem is tragic, the optimism of the people and the knowing of the depth of the siuation of the reader makes it sad.

Content:

The poem is based on WW1 and is about the young men that were enlisted into war and how war effected them and their families back home. The title MCMXIV is roman numerals for the number 1914 which was the start of the war (against the Germans in Belgium and France).

Analysis:

• Larkin puts the title in roman numerals to show he is talking about the past.
• The first stanza presents the image of men waiting to be recruited at the start of the war. They stand 'patiently' as if they were queueing for something leisurely like sport at the 'Oval or Villa Park'. These places refer to the British game of sport, but also where the recuitment took place. 'Stretched outside' is a reminder of the trenches that they will be in. 'On moustached archaic faces' is as if they think they're going to fight in the old way and how out of place they are. 'Grinning' suggests no nervousness, that they are excited and want to do it as if it were an 'August Bank holiday', just for fun. This is ironic, these optimistic people are signing a death sentence.
• The second stanza describes the world that they are leaving behind, however it's seemed to be dull and negative. 'Dark-clothed children at play' is foreboding, the dark suggesting death and misery. 'Tin advertisements' describes the propaganda the government went through when making people join the war, placing them on food cans for all to see and persuading them to be a part of it. 'The pubs wide open all day' is them making an occasion out of it, an opportunity to sell and celebrate.
• In the third stanza the 'countryside' isn't 'caring'. The war doesn't affect this place, and the rich live with 'servants' and have 'limousines'.
• The final stanza shows the truth to war. 'Never such innocence', it transofmrs the nation and changes people's attitudes to religion. 'Never before or since', people couldn't comphrend the loss of life because they hadn't been in a war before. 'Without a word', people were shell-shocked and had breakdowns because the normality of their lives had changed. 'Men leaving the garden tidy' as if they were bound to return, they didn't think much of leaving and that the war wouldn't last long. 'The thousands of marriages lasting a little while longer', the women became widows before they died and people couldn't explain the horrors they saw. The repetition of 'never such innocence again' implies how the war changed people, when people saw the reality of war they never see optimim again, they can never see the war to be over and the horrors changed people's lives and their views on politics and views on gender. Women become employed until the war was over when they were replaced again.
• In war memorials Larkin talks about how the reminscing is created by something that wasn't quite true. The people went away for honour and nobility but people forget about how they were pulled into it.

An Arundel Tomb

Theme:

 

This poem is a reflection on death, the passage of time and love, and how it can be eternal and last years in memories. The poem questions whether love rises above all things or if it is just a display, a distorted interpretation of history that just shows the ideals. This is called equivocation, an almost truth but not the whole truth.

 

Content:

 

This poem is the tomb of two medieval people that have had their love statued on the tomb where they lay, with them holding hands. Larkin highlights that the love and the meaning of this tomb can be interpreted differently by generations through the years. The poem is an ekphrasis which is a graphic description of a work of art, Larkin visited the tomb and pays tribute to them in this poem.

 

Structure:

 

The poem has the rhyme scheme ABBCAC and the poem is made up of seven verses with six lines each.

 

Analysis:

 

• Stanza one and two describe the tomb. The couple lay 'side by side', which makes them seem equal though this is untrue for the reality of their time. Their faces are 'blurred' and worn away, unrecognisable and anonymous. Time has eroded their faces, and natures takes away their identity until they become faceless. Their 'proper habits' suggest their rich lifestyle, and the tomb is a display of wealth and high status however this vague and fading. The man in is 'jointed armour' and she in a 'stiffened pleat'. Larkin finds the dog at their feet 'absurd'. Dogs represent loyalty and companionship which is how the tomb is conveyed by viewers.
• 'Such plainness of the pre-baroque' is a reference to an era in terms of art. The persona thinks of this tomb as plain until they see the 'left-hand gauntlet' a dress glove for armour holding his right hand glove. His right hand is holding his wife's right hand, a sign of their eternal love. 'A sharp tender shock' is an oxymoron, pleasant surprise that the Earl is dressed like a warrior but is soft and caring. 'Holding her hand' is alliteration, that their love is memorialized in stone and as long as the stone stays so does their love.
• In Stanza 3 Larkin describes how the couple didn't plan for their tomb to become a famous monument of love. A 'effigy' is a representation of a person in the form of a sculpture. Their 'faithfulness' was just for friends to appreciate. They didn't except it to be an emblem and the 'sculptor's sweet commissioned grace thrown off in helping to prolong' suggests if the couple knew they might have reconsidered commisionning it.
• In the later stanza Larkin talks about time. 'Their supine stationary voyage', lying down on one's back their death is displayed as the bodies lay still. The voyage references to the afterlife and life after death. 'Soundless damage' is an oxymoron, that time and nature will erode the tomb slowly. 'To look, not read' suggests that the people that visit this tomb don't know who the people are, and just see it as a display of love. They acknowledge but don't observe the past, people have to analyse the way it looks to understand. 'Rigidly' the statues remain linked together.
• 'Lengths and breadths' describe how they will stay there forever, that their love will be eternal. The seasons pass, 'snow fell, undated' and 'light each summer thronged the glass', these weathers symbol purity and cleansing. The 'birdcalls' imply new life around them but this is contrasted with the 'bone-riddled ground' which is the graves in the cemtery/cathedral. 'The endless altered people came'. People's views can be changed by seeing the love displayed by the tomb or by the location of the tomb and religion.
• 'Washing at their identity', cleansing them and removing the old past. The couple is 'helpless' because they are dead and have no control over what happens to them and their tomb now, in 'unarmorial age', there is no protection anymore.
• 'Above their scrap of history', suggests that they only hold one era of time and a tiny memory remains, one that will be slowly forgotten. 'Only an attitude remains', the attitude of love, the thought that love will pull them through and that it indures. 'Time has transfigured them into untruth', changed their looks, and no longer the truth. The tomb was meant to be what they wanted to be in the afterlige but the 'fidelity' the faithfulness of this has gone. 'Their final blazon', a top to toe description (poetic device) is all that they are. The last line 'our almost-instinct almost true: what will survive of us is love' can be seen in two ways. It can be optimistic, a romantic notion of momental meaning, that love will conquer all including death. However Larkin has a negative view so the poem can be interpreted that it is a bleak realism that people see the tomb for only what it is, they are nice to look at but it was the sculptor that made them like that not the couple. The tomb is a delusion, another person's interpretation of the couple.

 

 

Welsh Valley Cinema 1930s

 

Theme:

 

The theme of the poem is escapism, and using the film to visualise an ideal lifestyle compared to the poor area they live in. Dreams, ideals and memories becomes important in the poem, the illusions of a better life.

 

Content:

 

The persona reminises about a trip to the cinema, describing it to a beautiful escapism to watch a film and become involved with the film but has to return to his mundane life when the film ends.

Analysis:

• 'The Palace of the slums', 'pit' 'darkness' all suggest that this beautiful cinema has been placed in a run-down, unattractive area.
• 'The thrill' - excited, so excited to visit something different and interesting. This could be because they live in poverty, and something as simplistic as a cinema amazes them.
• 'It rose', 'boasting' '- the cinema stands above everything else, bold and strong against its 'slum' surrounding.
• 'Gaudy-bright, changing colours' - lights and bright sounds and new technology are magical and enchanting to him so much it takes his breathe away with 'musical asthma'.
• 'When the Broadway Baby Says Goodnight it's Early in the Morning' - a quote from the Gold Diggers of 1935, these are lyrics from a song called Lullaby of Broadway.
• 'Sank to disappear, a dream underground' - the reality of these people's lives sink and disappear when they watch the film but also the dreams of these people disappear when they finish the film and have to return to reality. The cinema is a dream underground, and the people find their hidden dreams when they visit it.
• '(Shoeless feet on a mecca carpet)', observed a miracle - suggests that these people are so poor to afford shoes, and that the cinema has become a place of worship for people, a religious paradise, their ideal life is being seen as a dream.
• 'Poor ragged Goldilocks dab away her glycerine tears' - there's something fake about the tears, not quite genuine, but also fairytales were introduced in the cinema which makes their dreams more fake
• '(No flies on Cary. No holes in his socks)' - Cary is a famous early cinema actor, the persona could be jealous/envy of him, that he isn't poor.
• 'Woodbine smoke swirled' - very visual imagery, the smoke is quite abstract and may be suggesting the same thing about the film
• 'till THE END - of course, upbeat' - the people watching the film are happy and content with what they see, a distraction from their miserable lives. The End is how most early films finished and now the film has ended so has their dreams. From this point on in the poem the voice of the poem becomes negative
• 'Damned fall', 'glum' 'trauma of paradox' - the people watching the film now become miserable and sad, reality has hit them and they were fooled by this paradox to think that their lives could be what was in the film
• 'Familiar malice of the dreary' - the cinema is an escape, and now he must return to his mundane life

Wild Oats

Theme:

Larkin objectifies women within this poem, creating a perfect ideal of the 'English Rose' compared to 'her friend in specs.' Larkin talks about wanting to date lots of people and sleeping with lots of people, somewhat a rite of passage for a male, including the sexual adventures before settling down and marriage.

Content:

This poem describes the earlier years of Larkin, especially his first girlfriend Ruth Bowman, a relationship that failed miserably but ironically later on in his life he still has photos of a girl, but not the one he dated. Larkin fantasises about his girlfriend's friend, and seems to reach for girls that are out of his league.


Voice:

The voice in this poem is quite sarcastic and dry, especially towards the women he's with but doesn't like as much.

Analysis:

• Larkin labels the two women, the 'bosomy English rose' and the 'friend in specs'. The 'bosomy English rose' is classically beautiful, a metaphor for this idealistic woman. The 'friend' is the one he could talk to, her specs a small detail that he makes relevant to her less attractive appearance. There are two contracts to the women, and Larkin makes this sexist because of the basic nature of the poem. 
• 'I met beautiful' suggests the persona only considers looks, attraction based on looks and that he won't be happy or committed to anyone else that doesn't meet his expectations. The persona only admires this girl from afar, she's out of his league and he becomes uncomfortable and not confident around her. He seems to degrade the girl he's with because she doesn't make him insecure, instead he's not intimidated and they seem to be the same. He aims for the women he knows he can get, and feels better than her because she is attainable.
• 'Too selfish, withdrawn and easily bored to love', the persona can't do commitment and makes them 'agreements' rather than acts of love.
• He keeps the photo after 'twenty years', the girl in his wallet the ideal woman becomes his 'unlucky charm' because no woman will match her.

A Study Of Reading Habits

Theme:

The poem is based around fictional books and imagination, yet the persona is unsatisfied/disappointed with them and looks back on his life so he's ageing. 

Content:

The persona recounts the kind of books he's read during three parts of his life.

Analysis:

The first stanza describes how reading helped him escape bullying at school. 'Cured most things short of school' implies that reading is a cure, a medicine that gets him away from real life. He lived his life through books, leaving reality behind. 'All deal out the old right hook' is as if the persona wants to be dramatic, tough and heroic like the characters he's reading about, but this is not compatible with the person who reads about them

The second stanza is about the persona moving into his teenage years. 'Me and my coat and fangs' suggests he's reading a vampire novel, and this is shows he's growing up. 'Had ripping times in the dark', wants to be a cool evil person. The persona takes an interest into women, 'the women I clubbed with sex!', a difference between the him who seems quite quirky and the brooding cool bad boy he wants to be. 

The last stanza shows the dull nature of reality, and stops reading because he's realised the characters he wanted to be like when he was young aren't like his real self, 'the dude who lets the girl down'. 'The chap who's yellow', a pessimistic identification to himself. He realises he's no longer the star in his own show, just the supporting role and the nobody in the background. 'Books are a lot of crap' is a comical conclusion, that they don't provide him with great daydreams anymore because he knows he's a coward

Whitsun Weddings

Theme:

Larkin talks about journey, the physical journey of watching things pass by and the changes that happen around him. Marriage and love is also described, that they are a rite of passage for everyone.

Content:

The poem describes a train journey on a hot Saturday afternoon, with the window open, where the persona watches newly weds at the station board onto the train and leave their families behind.

Structure:

The poem has eight stanzas with 10 lines each, and holds a rhyme scheme pattern: ABABCDECDE. The second line is shorter, to create a visual contrast, and the almost recreates the movement and sound of a train itself. 

The poem is written in the past tense, and based on an experience Larkin had himself. Larkin is an onlooker, an outsider distant from the events.

 Whitsun was originally a church festival where people wore white, and the holiday can be linked with weddings because people wear white and its the festival of change.

Analysis:

Stereotypes and characters:

Looks down on the working class, snobby and unpleasant to them.

• Girls:

'grinning and pomaded', 'parodies of fashion' 'posed irresolutely' - Larkin describes the girls in a degrading matter, their physical features of 'perms' fake and false as much as they try. The girls are vain, they flaunt around pretentiously and are materialistic and cheap. Larkin makes them almost comedic, so ridiculous to look at. 

• Fathers:

'never known success so huge' 'broad belts under their suits' 'seamy foreheads' - resemble the nervous, old failures who are quite fat and dressed well for this event

• Mothers:

Larkin makes the mothers grotesque, 'loud and fat', they become noisy, annoying, vulgar and Larkin describes them in a degrading, aggressive manner. 

• Uncles:

'shouting smut' suggests a rude, inappropriate side to relatives, that are carless and loud, quite embarrassing and rude to be with

• Children:

The children 'frowned at something dull', unimpressed and bored, they don't understand what's around them

• Larkin uses imagery in the beginning to appeal to the reader's senses. The first stanza describes the industrial areas of the 'back of the houses' and the car's 'blinding windscreens' reflecting the sun but transitions into the countryside passing by. The city becomes ugly and unsightly compared to the pleasant passing scenery. 
• Larkin seems to dislike marriage,  a 'happy funeral' for some, bittersweet, disgusted towards marriage, conflicting emotions that marriage has, joyful for the couple and loss for family
• 'A sense of falling like an arrow shower sent out of sight, somewhere becomes rain' - realisation of importance of marriage, the rain a refreshing ending, a reason to blossom and grow. The rain is the good in marriage, and the beauty of nature. Arrows move forward, hopeful future and that change that can bring energy. 

Ambulances

Theme:

Larkin describes how death is inevitable and lonely, and how it defines humans because they can not escape it, a pessimistic view of life. The poem is about mankind's fight against death, desperate and frantic. 

Content:

The poem is about a street where an ambulance has been called and everyone has come to see the scene, watching the body being taken away. 

Structure:

The rhyme scheme for this poem: ABCBCA shows the cyclical motion of life, how it starts and ends and in the middle there is just the repetition of surviving.

Analysis:

• The title 'Ambulances' is seen not for the potential joys of the world like births but instead for emergencies, injuries and death. People try to be saved, to avoid death and seeing an ambulance is like a reminder of mortality.
• 'Closed like confessionals' - a paradox that is also a simile and alliteration suggests that you can be private but also confess, confessionals whisper and are quiet but still talk. The confessionals is then contrasted on the next line by 'loud'.
• 'None of the glances they absorb' - the ambulances only receive glances, noticed momentarily. 
• 'Light glossy grey, arms on plaque' - the symbol of the local hospital, plain and boring, dull, lifeless. 
• 'All the streets in time are visited' - can happen at anytime to anyone, inevitable, comes eventually and can't escape it 
• 'Children strewn' and 'women coming from the shops' shows that people are intrigued to see the event, spectators, interested, death interrupts life, the young are up close to death even though they are the opposite sides to life
• 'Wild white' - alliteration that makes the dead people sound dangerous and feral but suggests death and lifeless
• 'Carried in and stowed' - treated like objects/baggage, uncared for, no one pays attention to who, just an ominous figure, dehumanises person
• 'Emptiness that lies just under' - buried bodies and death is underneath us all, lying close to life though it is forgotten until it's reminded by an ambulance
• 'For a second get it whole' - death comes all at once, suddenly
• 'Permanent and blank and true' - death is inescapable and there is an empty ending, it's the reality to life and we can't pretend it's not there
• 'Poor soul, they whisper at their own distress' - morality, the others thank it wasn't them but also a realisation they could be next
• 'Borne away' - an oxymoron (born and dead)
• 'Deadened air' - vacuum, silent, no life, a pun on dead end, the cycle of life
• 'Sudden shut of loss' - closure by surprise
• 'Unique random blend of families and fashions' - combination to make an identity, everyone must be different but everyone is affected so they become the same. These differences 'begin to loosen' so they become the same dead decaying body
• 'Love to lie' - love is dead, the truth/reality is ambigious
• 'Unreachable inside a room' - confined by unreachable, like in a morgue
• 'Left to come' - a death phrase
• 'Dulls to distance' - people become boring and insignificant

Afternoons

Theme: 

The poem talks about the meaning of life, time, love and the reality of life vs expectations. Things age in the poem.

Content:

Larkin paints a picture of life on an estate, and the people that live there (working class families). His opinion can be seen as snobbish and judgemental, but also sympathetic and nostalgia. The adults in the poem have children that are growing up, new generations moving on and they need to do the same but can't remain that this point in life (the high point of midday/summer) and must move into autumn/afternoon.

Analysis:

• 'Afternoon' is the non event/intermission between morning and evening, neither the start of the day or the end. 'Summer is fading' that happiness is passing, light is going and autumn will come which shows the decay and decline, darkness and a more bleak, negative mood that will turn into the winter depression. The era is ending.
• Larkin uses pathetic fallacy to describe autumn, 'leaves fall in ones and twos' a gradual change, unnoticed.
• The 'hollows of afternoons' - empty, bored, aimless
• 'Trees bordering' trapping, a natural fence that confides these people to their lifestyle
• 'New recreation ground' shows that the children used to play on the streets and have a new area to have fun
• Larkin also creates a difference in people, the 'young mothers assemble', routine yet unplanned, organised to look after the children.
• 'Setting free their children' implies that they were previously trapped, stuck, restricted and now have the freedom, to grow up and become independent. Their life is a routine and they have no freedom. This could be seen as being set free from a prison, relief and freedom or from a zoo, chaos and feral.
• The 'husbands in skilled trades' implies they are upper working class, a common background that is respectful. The men are more important, work for money and have authority that splits them from the family.
• 'Behind them, before them' at the start and second last line of the second stanza implies the women are trapped in between.
• 'Near the television' suggests TV is more important than the wedding albums, uncared for and the materialistic/techonological items replace the memories
• 'The wind' is an invisible destructive force, like time. The decay of their early lives begin.
• 'The lovers are all in school' implies they are still learning, naive and don't understand.
• The children find 'unripe acorns' like themselves
• 'Their beauty has thickened' implies that time enforces things, and makes them stronger, the mothers are less attractive (fatter) and the children are getting older
• 'Something is pushing them to the side of their own lives', time is pushing them, that things are based upon importance and the children become the priority which makes the adults selfless. There is expectations, the social class, lack of money that trap the working class and the parents trap the children.

As Bad As A Mile

Theme:

This poem is about life and the failures within life, the poem a metaphor for this.

Content:

Larkin describes the moment when you've finished an apple and throw it into the bin but miss.

Structure:

The poem is only 6 lines, split into two stanzas, showing how short the moment was and how short life and opportunities are in general. The rhyme scheme is AAA BBB.

Analysis:

• An apple can be linked to Adam and Eve, the symbol of temptation, if its unbitten it shows the innocence, perfection, idealistic paradise that is surrounding it but if bitten suffering and bad happenings emerge.
• Larkin suggests that everything is doomed for failure, like a reversal of time, that it's a failure before its begun, the 'unraised hand calm, the apple unbitten in the palm' placed at the end of the poem.
• The event in the poem is relatable, the 'shied core', 'striking the basket and 'skidding across the floor'. This simple failure can set people into a bad mood, and disappointment.
• 'Failure' is emphasised by the enjambment, appearing at the beginning of the second stanza.