Explore the themes and attitudes of Phillip Larkin's

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With close reference to the poem, say what interests you about the way in which the poet writes. Explore the themes, ideas and attitudes you perceive in the poem.

After reading the poem for the first time, I felt that it conveyed a general sense of satisfaction. But after studying the poem closely, other aspects suggest a feeling of disappointment that the poet has. This becomes particularly clear after the change in perspective in the last verse. Everything seems to have altered from its original perfection. The main theme that features throughout the poem is one of time.

In the first stanza, the poet illustrates what he sees when he revisits the seaside and is flooded with memories of past times spent here. The poet uses lots of adjectives to describe the activities going on, "Steep beach, blue water, towels, red bathing caps, warm yellow sand." The poet 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.

The poet also creates the image that time has stopped, firstly through the use of punctuation. The third and last lines of the first stanza are ended with a dash. This creates a pause for the reader and therefore the impression that time has stayed still. The poet also shows the image of times stopping through the description of the white steamer. "A white steamer stuck in the afternoon-" The use of the word "stuck" along with the dash, gives the impression that time has stopped.
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The overall tone and feeling of the first verse is that of delight and pleasure that the poet has been able to step back into their memory, and is pleased to find that all of their joyful memories have remained and stood still in time.

In the second verse the poet shows that the same things are happening at the seaside as when they used to come when they were a child. The poet shows his shock in the first line, "still going on, all of it, still going on!" They use repetition to emphasise the ...

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