The Theme of Time in The Two Poems, 'Days' and 'Toads Revisited'

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The Theme of Time in The Two Poems, ‘Days’ and ‘Toads Revisited’

By Philip Larkin.

        The titles of these poems alone suggest there will be a theme of time in them; The title ‘Days’ speaks for itself as days are a way of measuring time, ‘Toads Revisited’ however is much more subtle but the notion of revisiting, indirectly tells us that he is going somewhere or doing something that he has done before in his lifetime.

‘Days’ is a poem about Larkin’s views on death and how our approach on the subject can alter the way we live. Larkin begins his first stanza with the rhetorical question of ‘What are days for?”, though this is a question similar to the biggest question of all time ‘What is the meaning of life?’ Larkin answers it with a simple monosyllabic response, “Days are where we live”. For such a broad and open question this is a very closed, unrefined answer. This could be a reflection of Larkin’s view on the meaning of life, that he feels it is not important to search for a complex answer. I get the impression that Larkin is tired of life and its repetitive structure, “They come they wake us, time and time over” this is shown by his impassionate language and monosyllabic style. Its seems as if he feels time is passing too slowly.

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‘Toads Revisited’ unlike ‘Days’ is the second poem out of two, the first being similar in subject but written 10 years before when Larkin was at a different stage in his life. ‘Toads Revisited’ is written in a much more day to day fashion where as ‘Days’ is written on a more general topic. ‘Toads Revisited’ is about Larkin’s distaste for work and his realisation that without it his life would be empty. He looks at the way in which people without jobs spend their time. He comes to the conclusion that without his job he would have too much ...

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