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.