"Essential Beauty" by Philip Larkin is a perfectly balanced poem of two 16-line stanzas.

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   “Essential   Beauty” by Philip Larkin is a perfectly balanced poem of two 16-line stanzas. In the poem Larkin explores the subject of advertising in the early 60s. He begins by describing the subjects on huge billboards on the sides and ends of buildings. He suggests that these enormous images are placed in slum areas and that this is inappropriate and doubtful in its honest intention.

Larkin’s outstanding criticism is directed towards the content of the adverts. He makes it clear that “motor oil and cuts of salmon, are of no consequence or beyond the finical ability of the people who live in the blocks of streets and slums where these billboards are pasted. “Cars” and “deep arm chairs” bed time cups and radiant electric fires warming “cats by slippers on warm mats” are certainly not the experiences of those who dwell in the vicinity of the outrageous adverts. They:

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“Reflect none of the rained-on streets and squares

They dominate the outdoors.”

This criticism is at its height in its description of an advert for butter:

“……High above the gutter

A silver knife sinks into golden butter.”

Here he employs a cheap advertisement rhyme and exposes the ridiculous image which is clearly inappropriate for those upon whose house the advert may be displayed. Furthermore Larkin clearly despises the image of:

“Well balanced families, in fine

Midsummer weather.”

In the second stanza Larkin exposes the frothy emptiness of the images and moves on to explain the reality behind the images ...

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