Here

Content:

'Here' is about a train journey from the industrialised city into the countryside. The poem 'Here' was based on Larkin's experience from moving to Hull, when he had become to appreciate the countryside for its remoteness, and showed a distaste to the urban areas. His portrayal of the landscape has a romantic view vs industrial view, and describes nature to occasionally offer hope.

Theme: 

Larkin is critical of the urban population, finding more beauty in the natural world. These landscapes represent the journey of life, looking at the themes of freedom and independence that the countryside symbolises. Larkin looks at the working-class in a snobby matter, critising their love for materialistic items that means people are obsessed with possessions and lose themselves naturally. Nature is redemptive and the city is sordid.

Voice:

Isolated from the outside world, the train passenger passes by all the places he sees, separated from the natural world he appreciates.

Structure:

The poem has four, eight-line stanzas with an ABBACDDC then ABBACDCD rhyme scheme. The rhymes however are half-rhymes, and sometimes barely work creating the poem to be relaxed, informal and have a casual tone. Although the poem has structure, it is barely recognisable, fluent like the train journey Larkin experiences.

Key Features: 

• 'traffic all night north, swerving through fields' - busy cars avoid crops and nature, cautious and careful
• 'skies and scarecrows, haystacks, hares and pheasants' contrast from the industrial scenery before, more pleasant surroundings of nature that are more attractive and cheerful to look at
• 'domes and statues, spires and cranes cluster' - towering buildings, high monumental ones gathered together like a crowd, busy in the city, claustrophobic and trapped, negative view on the city
• 'cheap suits, red kitchen-ware, sharp shoes, iced lollies' - materialistic, cheap, dull

Loneliness:

• 'removed lives... loneliness clarifies' 'unnoticed' 'hidden' 'neglected' - remoteness, quietness

Ending:

• 'hidden weeds flower' - new unwanted creations grow
• 'peopled air' - airless, smog, full of people, crowded, unbreathable
• The 'beach' is comforting, end of land and beginning of the ocean, old end and new start.
• 'unfenced existence' - expansive ocean, freedom, free from own body, collective body of mankind, the confines and influences of the land disappear in the ocean
• 'facing the sun, untalkative, out of reach' depressing, pessimistic, blinding hope, impossible dream