Afternoons Flashcards
Author
Philip Larkin
Context
- 1960
- writing poem post war
- Larkin has a pessimistic POV
- Larkin writes about ordinary things
What’s the poem about
Mothers are in a park and are married and have domestic chores loss if agency, remembering they days when they used to hook up
First lines shows that the changing in seasons mirrors the changes in peoples lives. The verb shows that the people in the poem have already peaked and now are going down hill. Also hints to a loss perhaps of agency.
“Summer is fading”
Quote that shows that their life is empty and unfulfilled, the plural suggest that this is everyday
“Hollows of afternoons”
Two quotes that hint to gender rolls of women dedicating themselves to raising their children. Second quote shows that women have no individuality and are anonymous
“Young mothers”
“Behind them”
Quote at the heart of the poem, shows that the joy of the wedding day was a lie and it’s actually just chores and children. (Last word starts a new sentence, but coincidence I think not!)
“Our wedding, lying”
Quote that shows that the younger generation are still hooking up which is the cycle of life, links to the image of the leafs falling earlier. Perhaps that could be what the eom is really about the inevitable cycle.
“There are still, courting-places”
Last lines which show that they are becoming powerless, and have no agency over their own life’s, the way it is phrased suggests this is the norm.
“Something is pushing them to the side of their own lives”
Form
3 equal stanzas represents the lack of excitement in their life and the routinely lives that they live
Structure
Goes from women’s lives now, to the past fun and young women having fun (to contrast innit) then back to now which implies that they are stuck like this and nothing is gonna change
