Larkin, as a provincial urban person, is likely to take a holiday by the sea. He could go for sun, sand, sea and sex of ‘Sunny Prestatyn,’ were it not for the fact that the advertising poster of the laughing nymphet; “…kneeling up on the sand/In tautened white satin.” has been rudely subverted by graffiti artists; “She was slapped up one day in March/A couple of weeks, and her face/Was snaggle-toothed and boss-eyed;/Huge tits and a fissured crotch…” The language is meant to shock us out of the illusion; it is false and our sympathy is drawn to the annoyed graffitist who is someone who has refused to be taken in by the poster.
The poster, the sea, the girl, like the ’Essential Beauty’ of billboards, are merely facades; disrespect by passers; a wonderful portrayal of reality and the disrespect of people in society today have. Perhaps ruining positive images in an effort to release their unhappiness. Moreover, it is also interesting that the poster of the resort was replaced with a poster that says, “Fight cancer” – it brings to mind another issue that we can relate to. Perhaps, Larkin put the cancer poster up, as a suggestion that society sees posters such as the advertisement of the resort cancer to society. Another way for people to spend money; spending is the cancer of society?
The force of the poem lies in contrast between the dream world of the poster and the reality of the situation. Much like in ‘Essential Beauty’ Larkin has successfully exploited the audience into believing something that isn’t there. These advertising billboards appeal to our inherent sense of beauty and fulfilment that we so desperately desire. Larkin has managed to transfigure advertising and only our imagination can conceive these ideals; advertisements of perfection and images that promise so much. The “silver knife” and the “glass of milk in a meadow.” These are images that promise natural beauty much like the poster in ‘Sunny Prestatyn;’ a tantalising promise of sex. Again, it is not until the second stanza that we realise that these images are indeed ‘cold’ and are far from being ‘pure.’ The “…dark raftered pubs/Are filled with white-clothed ones form the tennis-clubs.” This is very ironic as Larkin uses the image of social success, which is an illusion, to pretend that reality does not exist. As well as this, the people from the tennis-clubs are wearing white, much like the virginal purity of the girl in ‘Sunny Prestatyn;’ however, the idea of the perfect place is then flawed as we realise the reality of the situation presented in a very unpleasant way, “the boy puking his heart out in the Gents.” Essentially, reality is what all the advertisements overlook as we are left to ponder the irony of pensioners paying more for his tea, but only, “To taste old age.” As well as this, cigarettes are another way of advertising in the poem and illusion pervades this, as it does not explain that these smokers are dying.
Finally, similar to ‘Sunny Prestatyn,’ we are left with a dramatically effective last few lines where illusion becomes reality because it is the nature of ‘Essential Beauty.’ Much like the poem the final line loses its rhythm and fades with a vision of unreachable beauty.
Moving on, whilst the previous two poems, ‘Essential Beauty’ and ‘Sunny Prestatyn,’ have explained illusion and reality through advertising hoardings I am going to look at an illusion that perhaps pervades Larkin. ‘Wild Oats’ is about an attempt at a mature relationship but again it ties in with the theme of unattainable beauty, which is something prominent throughout the previous poems; a poem confirmed by Larkin about courtship. Larkin relates how two women who were friends appear at his work place but the poet recalls that he was too shy of the glamorous one and was left, to make do with making friends with the other women; “it was the friend I took out.” Though, it is not friendship that he really wants but the fascination of sexual attraction.
Even as he leaves, in the end, in his dismissive phrase, ‘Bosomy Rose,’ one suspects he is still in thrall to the charmer. To the end, he carries a photo of both women. Romance appears to be an illusion to Larkin that delivers none of its promises. Larkin has become engaged to her, but he hasn’t his heart in it. The beauty of the ‘Bosomy Rose’ is unattainable; the ‘Rose’ never becomes flesh or blood; instead Larkin is left with the less attractive girl, like Larkin belongs to the ordinary world and exists in a routine reality. This dull courtship becomes habit, as ‘letters, gifts and routine meetings’ are a result of Larkin’s sudden parting and there is no doubt that ‘Wild Oats’ offers a glimpse into a humiliating passage of the poet’s youth. So successfully does he pass off formal control as loose conversation, that one doesn’t even notice the rhymes at first. Once again, the sting in the tail becomes apparent in Larkin’s poems. Just like the previous two poems the last few lines. Whether seen in the flesh or on the photograph, we realise that her charms are indeed ‘Unlucky.’
In conclusion, the reader realises that Larkin illustrates illusion and reality in many different ways and it is obvious that, in the three poems studied, that unattainable desires is something that separates this illusion form reality; where Larkin has been forced over to the reality side of things, to the real world of discontentment.
James Kennedy L6 D
