Using 3 poems, explore Larkin's contemplations on time

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Using 3 poems, explore Larkin’s contemplations on Time.

      Many of Larkin’s poems express his different ideas on the universal theme of time. ‘Love Songs in Age’, ‘Send No Money’ and ‘Days’ embody this theme by reminding the reader that our knowledge of this topic is limited as time itself is temporal and time unmasks our youth-created illusions that we have of reality through it’s impression of a damaging strength. Through the use of various techniques, Larkin emphasizes that time is immutable and eventually leads to our inevitable fate death. These contemplations of time would have taken place during his middle aged years as Larkin became more aware of the essence of existence and the problem of time.

       ‘Love Songs in Age’ illustrates a woman who is widowed who is going through her old song albums, reminiscing and realizing the passage of time. Larkin attempts to display that remembering the past only brings momentary happiness of the memory. This is shown in the first stanza when going through the covers and she finds one that was ‘coloured by her daughter’. As well as showing the passage of time, the covers also present time as a destructive force since the covers have been ‘bleached’, ‘marked’ and ‘coloured’. However, the widow tried to rebel against time as she mended one cover ‘when a tidy fit has seized her’ and perhaps this can also be the motivation for the series of indentations in the poem to persistently try to stop time. Although, by the end of the poem, it can be said that she finally accepts that time is immutable as the last three lines of the final stanza indicate her mature personality which admits that the youth-created promise of love cannot be fulfilled. Some say that this tender approach towards the widow is unlike Larkin since he does not make an effort to mock or ridicule the woman, it could be said that this distances Larkin from his own poetry and allows the reader to sympathize with her as she acknowledges the passing of time. ‘Still promising to solve, and satisfy’, this particular section of sibilance creates a constant hissing sound, almost as if time is about to creep and attack further developing the idea of time as a brutal force. The rhyme scheme in conjunction with enjambement present an elegant and solemn tone to the poem which accentuates the idea of accepting that time is an uncontrollable force.

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        Time is also conveyed as an unchallengeable and irrepressible power in another one of Larkin’s poem ‘Send No Money’ as Larkin makes a caricature of time. This idea is enhanced through the use of ‘booming Boy’ as it establishes time as a figure of authority. By developing the caricature of time through a dramatic monologue as well as the exaggerated voice of his child like self, the poet tries to reveal the naivety of youth and our ignorance of the way it changes our lives. Similar to ‘Love Songs in Age’, this poem decimates the false ...

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