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.