Daisy Atkin                English A1 HL

511581                Mr. John

07-01-2008                Larkin/Afternoons

Afternoons

Philip Larkin

The poem ‘Afternoons’, written by Philip Larkin, shows his fairly cynical view that he has on marriage. It also leads us to see a still image moment of a council estate life, with all the details finely outlined by Larkin. The poem emphasizes the stress that children can put on their parents, particularly the young mothers, as well as young marriage, and the responsibility young couples have to take, as they mature too early, and become an child living in an adult’s body. There is a sense of decay and a decline throughout the whole poem, and Larkin finishes on an extremely melancholy note, with the last three lines.

In the first stanza of the poem, the first and thus the opening line of the poem reads “Summer is fading.” This asks the reader to consider that time of year, and entertains the ideas of a bright light of summer, slipping slowly away into the darkness of an oncoming winter. The following line, “The leaves fall in ones and twos” shows that the seasons are in the transition between summer and autumn, commonly thought as one of the most beautiful times of the year. The fact that Larkin has used this particular time of year shows that whilst on the surface, the “young mothers” that we see “setting free their children” may seem to have a warm and pleasant life, as is summer, they actually have a far darker side, and a far sadder side to their lives once the surface is scratched away.

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The second stanza introduces to us the husbands “in skilled trades”. What I believe the poet is referring to here is the fact that many young husbands, who try to keep money coming in whilst the mothers toil to look after the children, often have jobs in trades such as plumbing, masonry, carpentry etc. These are trades which more often than not do not require qualifications of any sort. Thus, Larkin is trying to show that though these husbands may work long hours in what is in practice a highly skilled job, they are not paid well, and this ...

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