Afternoons

Question 1

Summer

Answer 1

is fading

Question 2

trees bordering

Answer 2

the new recreation ground

Question 3

setting free

Answer 3

their children

Question 4

an estateful

Answer 4

of washing

Question 5

Our Wedding,

Answer 5

lying near the television

Question 6

the wind

Answer 6

is ruining their courting places

Question 7

finding more

Answer 7

unripe acorns

Question 8

something is

Answer 8

pushing them to the side of their own lives

Question 9

Structure

Answer 9

The first stanza deals with Larkin’s rather cynical view of marriage and deals with how young mothers are isolated. The emptiness in the mothers. He then describes in the second stanza the division between the husband and wife and how a wedding is not cherished. He then focusses back on the children and saying that this is a cycle and it will continue as the kids will also realise that love is not what they think it is.

Question 10

Form

Answer 10

There is no regular meter and it is written in blank verse which suggests the emptiness of the mother who have no purpose in life