Although the poet is employing sympathy to show the effect of death within Mr. Bleaney, it could also be argued that because of the way in which, the narrator is making a negative judgement on a deceased person by only using his possessions he is therefore being insensitive, as he could be implying after death our life is judge by the possessions we leave behind only. The styles of the poems are a negative, pessimistic, unsentimental tone and mood of the poem links to other poems within the Whitsun’s Weddings.
A conventional characteristic of Larkin is that he tends to examine people who themselves are observing something. This characteristic is shown particularly within Ambulances, a poem describing people witnessing a body being taken by an ambulance. The interest in death that people are demonstrating reflects the poet’s interest in death also and demonstrates the reason why Larkin uses the theme of death in his poetry. The way in which Larkin symbolises death as the evitable could be seen as insensitive and unsympathetic as he explicitly states it, “All streets in time are visited” and also that people are negligent to this until death strikes ‘close to home’ and becomes realistic. The lack of emotion and comfort within this message represents the lack of feeling and sympathy Larkin has towards this subject. On the other hand, it could be argued that Larkin is simply using realism to convey messages more emotively and effectively to the reader instead of being implicit and losing the effectiveness.
The way in which Larkin describes the people’s reactions as, “they whisper at their own distress”, could be used by Larkin as a criticism to society as ‘being selfish’ and ‘self-absorbed in their own fate’, the shock is not at the person’s life being ended but by the realism that one day theirs will be too. This could also link with the interpretation of Larkin objectively calling the person an “It” in Ambulances and Mr. Bleaney. Therefore the poet appears unsympathetic in a distressing situation and appears more critical. The poem also employs a negative tone and an unsentimental, dismal mood. The poem contains four stanza’s each containing six lines, and a regular rhyme. This continuity could be interpreted, as symbolising the continuity of death, enforcing that death is evitable.
Dockery and Son focuses on marriage and children, the conventions of life. This poem differs from the other three, as it appears more personal due to its autobiographical style and less object like the other three. ‘Afternoon’s’ is also a poem containing themes of relationships. The title ‘Afternoons’ implies ‘the middle’, as it is the middle of the day. This could also be symbolising the middle of life, or being middle aged, as Larkin was middles aged when writing this poem, linking to the themes and narratives within the poems. The second line in the first stanza, “fall in ones and twos”, symbolises this idea of relationships within the poem. The poem appears to be challenging relationships, engaging the reader as middle-aged ideology consists of relationships and family. Within both of these poems Larkin writes about means of transport, the train was recently constructed in England at this time and was seen as ‘linking the whole country together’, therefore Larkin’s poetry could be interpreted as being communicated to the whole country as everyone can relate to the inevitability of death, or that the idea of travelling could represent the ‘journey of life’. Whereas previously Larkin has questioned death and criticised people’s negligence to it, he accepts it without inquiring; this could result in evoking more sympathy within the poem.
Afternoon’s also includes themes of relationships including parenthood. Larkin uses an antithesis of space and boundaries, as he suggests a new recreation ground that is bordered by trees closing it off. This could be another Larkin criticism of life as he suggests children are set free into life, “setting free their children” with freedom and choices but they are bordered by their parents values and opinions enforced on them and therefore they follow the conventional life that they lived. So he suggests that the freedom presented to us in the beginning of life, is actually a farce. This criticism of parenthood could also cast Larkin as insensitive and judgemental.
The mothers and father are described separately in the poem both contextually and structurally; this is possibly to suggest that they are divided in some way. The father is represented as not being involved and “behind them, at intervals”. Larkin could be suggesting that all fathers support their families, irregularly. This could be a reflection of Larkin’s own life and upbringing. Larkin also criticises the traditional ideas of true love, he suggest that love is only associated with youth and therefore naivety, “but the lovers are all in school”. This could be a reflection on his own life as he was never settled into a steady, conventional relationship himself, and his parents also had an unhappy relationship, which would have affected his opinions. This divide is structurally shown within the poem as descriptions of the parents are contained within different stanza’s further emphasising the divide between them. Another implication within the poem is that love is lost in age, “before them, the wind is ruining their courting places”. This line shows that time has destroyed the couple’s old memories and the love they shared as youths. Larkin could also be implying that love does not last in a relationship, but instead, the convention of having to get married keeps them together. These criticisms’s of love could help readers to sympathise with him due to their own failures in love, but on the other hand could also create readers to dispute this idea and therefore think Larkin is being insensitive.
Larkin criticises the way in which people life by the convention, or could be criticising the way in which the false relationship the parents are representing, and the way is which he suggests love is superficial effects the child’s opinions of love and relationships in the future therefore, “pushing them to the side of their own lives”. The negative motifs of death are still present within the poem, “fading”, “hollows”, “unripe” and “thickened”, the explicit negativity within the poem again represents Larkin’s unsympathetic nature
Larkin challenges people living by the convention within all four poem, but most explicitly in Afternoons. On the 7th line in the first stanza of Afternoon’s “At swing and sandpit”, links to ideas of time associated with life. ‘Swing’ could be associated with a clock pendulum swinging, and ‘sand’ could be associated with an hourglass and ‘the sands of time’. The swing also could be interpreted as a symbol of freedom, and the sandpit a symbol of industry and work, a motif linked with ‘fathers’, later in the poem, “stand husbands in skilled traders”. This idea could be used by Larkin to challenge the conventions people live to, instead of being different and choosing ‘freedom’ and choice; they choose the conventional industry, 9am to 5pm jobs, unlike him being a poet with freedom of speech. This criticism of people’s life enforces discrimination through stereotyping and makes Larkin appear in an unsympathetic light towards the circumstances people are forced into. As the poem does not deal with death as explicitly as the other three poems, therefore it could be argued there is less sympathy needed anyway.
To conclude, each of these poems uses negative imagery to convey themes of death and to emphasis criticisms of conventional living. The use of repetition within the poems enforces messages to the reader and also allows the reader to absorb the messages Larkin is conveying making them more effective. The way in which Larkin explicitly discusses death and criticises the reader, labels him as unsympathetic, but readers who can relate to him will sympathies with his sense of non-fulfilment and disappointment. The use of personification when describing death within all four poems almost creates emotive language through imagery as it allows the reader to understand death by giving it characteristics therefore evoking sympathy.
In response to the criticism of Larkin, in my opinion it is fair to say, as Larkin does not use sympathy, but the way in which he chooses not to, therefore allows him to be original. The explicitness of his messages creates more effectiveness and signposts them to the reader, which engages them in thought and furthermore, with interest. The harsh unsympathetic tone also links with Larkin’s own fear of the subject and symbolises deaths harsh, cruel mannerism, creating realism and effect. The way in which all of the poems contain a constant rhyming pattern could also be used to symbolise the inevitability of death. Larkin’s rebellion against romanticism, makes him a shocking and controversial poet, this is influenced by Thomas Hardy and D.H. Lawrence which consequently gave him his sense of individuality and therefore further effectiveness in poetry.
