How far do you agree that 'To the sea' conveys a sense of disappointment?
How far do you agree that 'To the sea' conveys a sense of disappointment? Some aspects of 'To the sea' convey sense of satisfaction, however other aspects suggest a feeling of disappointment, and this is particularly clear after the change in perspective in the last verse. In the first verse Larkin illustrates what he sees when he revisits the seaside, and remembers. He uses lots of adjectives to describe the activities going on, "Steep beach, blue water, towels, red bathing caps...warm yellow sand." Larkin creates an unreal and clichéd appearance of the scene by using primary colours for adjectives, this is emphasised by the onomatopoeic effect of "hushed waves' repeated fresh collapse" which furthers the idea of the perfect destination. Larkin also creates the image that time has stopped, firstly through his use of punctuation at the end of 3rd and last line he ends in a dash. This creates a pause for the reader and therefore the impression time has stayed still. Larkin also shows the image of time stopping through the description of the white steamer, "A white steamer stuck in the afternoon-" he clearly shows time has stopped by saying that it is 'stuck'. This is also emphasised by the alliteration of steamer and stuck, as well as showing delight that the steamer is there it makes the words stand out to the reader and emphasises that time has stopped. The overall tone
Larkin has often been regarded as a hopeless and inflexible pessimist. In the light of the 'Whitsun Weddings' how true is this statement?
Larkin has often been regarded as a hopeless and inflexible pessimist. In the light of the 'Whitsun Weddings' how true is this statement? This statement is true to some extent, however, Larkin is regarded as this pessimistic writer of poetry because he is a realist poet. In his work Larkin focuses on intense personal emotion but strictly avoided sentimentality or self-pity, therefore this would create a pessimistic view on his work. Most of Larkin's poetry is very observational and provincial, and his feelings of failure could have affected this. The death of his mother was the main foundation of his depression however in January 1942 he failed an army medical examination due to bad eyesight. He was therefore deemed unfit for military service. This could have affected his depression, so as to outline a motive for his pessimistic poetry. Having saying this, the amount of positive successes' in Larkin's life out numbers the failures. Accolades were granted Larkin in 1965 for his major work on 'The Whitsun Weddings'. The Arts Council Triennial Award for poetry and the Queen's Gold Medal for poetry. The 'Whitsun Weddings' contains many pessimistic poems, 'Nothing to be said' being one of the most opinionated poems in the collected works. The poem starts off by means of criticism. "Cobble-close families", "nuclear family", these quotes create images of cramped terrace
'Larkin is often thought of as a gloomy poet, describing life and the world around him in a drab and depressing manner.' Explore this idea in light of your reading of 'This Be the Verse'.
'Larkin is often thought of as a gloomy poet, describing life and the world around him in a drab and depressing manner.' Explore this idea in light of your reading of 'This Be the Verse'. Larkin's 'This Be the Verse' delivers a damning message to its reader that could be said to be typical of the man Larkin was. The poem describes how parents have passed on all their faults and bad habits to their children for centuries. The poem's crude meaning is characteristic of much of Larkin's other work, for example 'High Windows'. Larkin makes no attempt within the poem to conceal the message he is giving to the reader. The message is clear and blunt; the poem certainly contains no hidden meaning. He is basically saying that generations of parents have continued to pass on all the wrong things to the children. The opening line reads: "They fuck you up, your mum and dad." When you consider that the majority of us look upon our parents as the people who carve our characters, bring us up and support us the first line is quite damning of all mothers and fathers and when put into context is probably a revelation to many of us readers. When you relate the message of the poem though to Larkin's own unique childhood, you can begin to try to understand the venom of the poem's tone and meaning. Larkin, brought up in a secure, middle class family background found his childhood quite
Comparing four or more poems, including those of Brian Pattern - Show how the poets present different attitudes towards relationship and comment on how they use language to express their feelings strongly.
Hannah Savage 20th Century Poetry Comparing four or more poems, including those of Brian Pattern. Show how the poets present different attitudes towards relationship and comment on how they use language to express their feelings strongly. The world around you is full of relationships. Some good, some bad. A relationship can bring happiness and love whilst also bringing sadness and unpleasantness. Two people having emotional feeling for each other, sharing those feelings with comfort and pleasure, form a relationship. Many will say that a relationship is the best thing ever, whilst others may say it's also the worst. When a relationship forms why does there always have to be a good and a bad part? One of the poems I have studied is 'this be the verse' by Philip Larkin. It is about a child blaming everything that has happened to him on his parents. Larkin has expressed his feelings for a relationship by using the bitter and brutal word 'fuck'. He chooses these choices of words to shock the readers and members of his family. When the poem was write in 1960 the word 'fuck' would have been even more offensive than it is now. Ask yourself why call the poem 'this be the verse'? Larkin uses the word 'be' to get his point across on relationships. Using the word 'be' makes his opinion a fixed thing. Larkin's uses of language in this poem sets out the pessimistic image that your
Philip Larkin's Church Going.
Regina Sloutsky 2/17/03 C Block English Philip Larkin's Church Going reveals his views on religion and the value of the church through describing a biker's encounter with a church he often passes. Larkin shows the meaning of Christianity and its place in society by contrasting its physical and spiritual aspects. As church-goers attempt to explain life, he questions their sincerity, and the reasoning behind venerating a space, which is merely physical. Although Larkin acknowledges a "gravitating" pull to the Church, he is nonetheless skeptical of its power to explain the meaning of life. In the first stanza, Larkin describes his first hesitant entrance into the church, in which he feels strangely uncomfortable. Larkin relies on assonance to depict a vivid image of the church's interior. The words "door thud shut," "sprawling of flowers," "small neat organ," and "tense, musty," each reflect the meaning. The period after "thud shut" also emphasizes the sound of the door closing, and the feeling of entrapment in the church. The punctuation at the end of the stanza is also similar to the feelings evoked, with an unusual break after "I take off," leaving the reader with a possible interpretation of the biker taking off to see the remainder of the church, and then clarifying by continuing in the next line to explain that he is in fact taking his cycle clips off instead
By analysing precisely the content and style 'The Whitsun Weddings', consider how far you would agree with the notion that Larkin believes marriage offers happiness.
By analysing precisely the content and style 'The Whitsun Weddings', consider how far you would agree with the notion that Larkin believes marriage offers happiness. 'The Whitsun Weddings' is from the collection with the same title by Larkin. The poem is told by a persona who is on a train which is driving trough many stations where wedding parties can be seen seeing off the bride and groom as the go on their honeymoon. The poem was the result of a train journey which Larkin made on Whit Saturday in 1955. The poem is not only about weddings but also new beginnings to journeys in life. The poem is entitled 'The Whitsun Weddings' because as we are told in the opening line the date is Whitsun. This is the seventh Sunday after Easter also known as Pentecost. It is the day in the Christian calendar when the disciples were visited by the Holy Spirit in the form of flames. From this day on they went out to spread the word of Jesus and it has been called the birthday of the Christian Church. This is why Whitsun is seen as a good day to be baptised or get married as a symbol of a new beginning. This theme of beginnings is shown in many places in the poem; "someone running up to bowl" and "somewhere becoming rain". It is surprising he focuses on these things in the poem because many of the others in the collection focus on the sad aspects of life and how unfulfilling it is. There
Arundel Tomb
'Larkin's vision of life is bleak and depressing.' With close analysis of 'An Arundel Tomb' and one other poem by Larkin, compare the ways in which Larkin and Abse write about their outlook on life. The popular view of Larkin is indeed of a bleak and depressing poet, and on first analysis his poems can strike the reader in this way. Indeed, he has been accused of worse: of being misanthropic and, in particular, misogynistic. Certainly, his vision could certainly never be said to be romantic or optimistic. In 'Wild Oats,' for instance he describes forming a relationship with the less attractive of two friends, who ultimately finishes with him because, 'I was too selfish, withdrawn and easily bored to love.' Many of his other poems also convey this gap between the ideal of romantic love and the disillusionment of the reality too. Larkin made no secret of the fact that he believed marriage could be an imprisonment and that having children was the end of a person's life, something that people did because it was expected of them, that in fact they might well come to regret subsequently. He also explores in his writing how the passing of time can erode love, and how, being mortal, nothing survives death in any event. However there is another side to Larkin, where he acknowledges with great sympathy and sensitivity the importance the human species places on love, and its
With close reference to 2 or 3 poems in 'The Whitsun Weddings', discuss the view that Larkin always finds life a disappointment.
With close reference to 2 or 3 poems in 'The Whitsun Weddings', discuss the view that Larkin always finds life a disappointment. Philip Larkin wrote a great collection of poems of varying themes. These range from religion to the past to people. However a lot of his poems all have a common moral. It seems that at the end of his poems he reflects on the theme in his poem and finds a hidden meaning which relates to life in general. Most of these 'morals' however seem to show that he has found something very disappointing as a result. Some of his poems are also just reflections on something about life whether it's to short or not worth it. 'Days' by Philip Larkin is a short poem which questions the nature of our existence. It talks about time passing and asks "what are days for?" He answers this question by say they are "where we live". He also says that "they are to be happy in" but we can ask ourselves whether Larkin is happy. In the poem Larkin reaches a bizarre conclusion but not really the one he was looking for. The last verse begins with "Ah" as if in revelation Larkin has realised something. He tells us that solving the question of "what are days for?" means that "the priest and the doctor in their long coats" apparently come "running over the fields". This is a strange conclusion but is Larkin's way of telling us there is no answer. The priest represents the spiritual
Larkin has been accused of a lack of sympathy in his poetry, based on your reading of four poems (Mr. Bleaney, Afternoons, Ambulances, Dockery and son) how fair is their criticism?
Larkin has been accused of a lack of sympathy in his poetry, based on your reading of four poems (Mr. Bleaney, Afternoons, Ambulances, Dockery and son) how fair is their criticism? Larkin saw himself as a writer of 'someone who recorded the times and places with realism and irony'. A reoccurring theme of death is shown throughout all the poems within 'The Whitsuns Weddings', this theme is closely linked to sympathy. By exploring a sensitive subject tactlessly, the poet's lack of sympathy creates controversy over his work, but also could be used to simply emphasise his messages more explicitly to the reader. Sympathy is generally evoked through emotive language and structure within the poem. Mr. Bleaney is an objective collaboration of characteristics about a lonely mans life and his solitary achievements exposed by examining his possessions. The character closely resembles Larkin's life, as they are both lonely, without commitment and family. The way, in which Larkin describes his room as having "No room for books" creates a cultural distance between them, as Larkin was an enthusiastic book reader, this shows that he is uncomfortable with the similarity between their lives and has to create this difference. Two of the poems, Ambulances and Mr. Bleaney are about an anonymous person who has died, the reconstruction of Mr. Bleaney's life employs pathos, as it contains
Discuss the distinctive qualities and effects of the poem Mr Bleaney.
Discuss the distinctive qualities and effects of the poem 'Mr Bleaney'. The poem appears to express the thoughts of Larkin as he views the rented room of 'Mr Bleaney'. In exposing the lonely, monotonous life of this figure, Larkin is unable to criticise as he sees a reflection of his own life. The poem addresses the key themes of loneliness and the shallowness of human life from the outset. The name 'Mr Bleaney as the title evokes the emotion of insipidness as the word conjugation is very monotonous with no strong syllables. Similar to the nature of the room Larkin describes, the name has little stimulation. This monotony is reinforced in the concept of him renting a 'room' as this has little status in comparison of being an 'owner'. The theme of the shallowness of existence is present from the clinical nature in which the landlord refers to his death as 'they moved him'. The use of indifferent language to refer to his death shows the little care for the ending of his life. The lack of pride Mr Bleaney felt for the room is shown in the deficiency of home comforts. The 'upright chair' and 'no hook behind the door' symbolises the pragmatic nature of Mr Bleaney's life, he didn't make an impression on the room. The use of 'sixty watt' bulb reinforces the idea of an eerie glow, evocative of the theme of loneliness. The description of the flowered curtains as 'thin and frayed'
