Larkin - Consider

Authors Avatar

Consider "Here", Whitsun Weddings" and "Arundel Tomb" as explorations of identity and time.

Larkin has been criticised over the years for the moroseness of his poems, the blackened description of everyday life that some people say lacks depth, however, unlike many other poets, Larkin does not always write the truth or the depth of his feelings. In many there is a voice, trying to convince its author of something that is usually quite evident or exploring itself but revealing only the surface. Why he is trying to convince himself and what are is true feelings present the real challenge and profundity of Larkin poems. The search for one's identity, combined for everybody in one's unique fantasies and realities is a recurrent theme in his poems. As is time, the passing of it, the transformation it engenders and the damage it inflicts.

In "Here", identity or the search for one's identity is the main theme. The search is symbolised by the journey taken by Larkin, which takes him through the countryside before Hull, through Hull and finally into the countryside and the beach outside Hull. He finds his identity in the countryside outside Hull, however, he knows that although it is here that he yearns for, it is not his true self, it is his fantasy, the "Here" he would like to live in but that is nevertheless "out of reach". His real identity can be found in Hull with the people and city he so despises.

His journey starts in the farm lands before Hull, he does not stop his car, he swerves passed everything as he knows it is not what he is searching for and the slowness of the life he describes here is used in contrast to the imagined speed of the author's swerving vehicle on the motorway.

His next stop, his arrival in Hull marks an abrupt change in scenery ("the surprise of a large town") and the driver stops his car, Larkin uses the word "Here" here for the first time so that we assume he has at last found something, a part of his identity. What he sees, described in the next two paragraphs is a city he despises, a city of people whom he feels are below him, yet he knows it and them extremely. He knows about the contrast between its "domes and statues" and "grain scattered streets", as he knows the people there, he describes their movements as "stealing" suggesting stealth and sleaze as they move towards the supermarkets, swinging doors to their "desires", emphasising that the desires are theirs. What they want (Cheap suits, red kitchenware, sharp shoes...) is not what he wants, it is too "cut-price" and cheap. He describes Hull as the average persons city, "urban yet simple", filled with average people. However, it seems as if Larkin is pushing himself to loathe these people, trying to convince himself how horrible these people and this city are with it's "fishy-smelling" streets. Yet he probably feels akin with them, as they are his reality.

Join now!

The next stop of his search is obviously his desired final destination, he uses "Here" many times as if it is even more like ' 'home' than Hull. It is a world unspoilt by man where "leaves unnoticed thicken", "Hidden weeds flower" and "neglected waters quicken", there is a "beach Of shapes and shingle" and he says, "Here is unfenced existence". However, it is unspoilt by man because nobody lives there, if he were to be there then it would be spoilt, he therefore recognises that it is better for it to stay an imagined world "out of reach".

An ...

This is a preview of the whole essay