Larkin - Arrivals,Departures, toads, Decep,POD Flashcards
(44 cards)
what is the significance of the title ‘Arrivals, Departures’
The clipped syntax conveys the constant flow of opportunities and choices adding to the sense of overwhelm and the pressure to do so.
‘the town has docks where the channel boats come sidling’
The town in presented as prepared for such opportunities to arrive.
The sound imagery depicts how opportunities pass by discretely so subtlety that they are often missed
knocking at his knees/blurted to the morning shore
The loud and obtrusive arrival of the salesman is disturbing to the calmness and narcoleptic state of the speaker who is ‘barely recalled from sleep’ and the surroundings of the town
how does the second stanza show the shifting and fleeting nature of time
In a single caesura the stanza transitions from day until night beginning ‘And so we rise. At night again they sound’ lack of respite from the repetitive nature of contemplating the forever incoming opportunities.
what is the significance of the speaker having to ‘sense/Arrivals’ and also being nudged from comfort’
both the subconscious pressure and discomfort in making decisions the unease felt to act and internal foreboding but also externally prompted to choose.
lowing in the doleful distance - sound
the zoomorphism of the sound imagery solidifies that how we deal with opportunities is scripted, whilst the salesman is exited to take up these opportunities, he lacks individuality being herded toward these decisions into a ritualistic existence and therefore is presented as conformist.
doleful distance
AO2
AND AO3
Larkin uses hypallage to signify how the speaker is encompassed by sadness when reflecting on decisions provoking an underlying dissatisfaction. Unease as we are forced to reevaluate our current lives when new opportunities arise that is a constant background noise of ‘lowing’.
AO3 - Whilst by keeping the opportunity ambiguous Larkin adheres to conventional Movement tropes, he also strays from them in the symbolist element of the poem where rather than his literary influences like Hardy, Arrivals departures is more like Yeats’ figurative poems.
Horny dilemmas at the gate once more
what is the AO3 and AO2?
Larking depicts the choice the speaker is contemplating as incredibly ambiguous, whilst ‘horny’ could be perceived as a sexual innuendo and therefore about the complexity of relationships it also replicates the idiosyncratic phrase where the outcome of choices lead to dissatisfactory outcomes detailing the illusion of choice the speaker is presented with. The vague language is typical of Movement style poetry with Larkin’s purpose to allow for his poems to be applicable to the ‘man at the bus stop’ and the universal experience.
who says this
‘come and choose wrong ,they cry, come and choose wrong’
The collective pronoun could demonstrate the societal pressures enforced on selecting a choice or alternatively may be a reflection of the personification of choice where the lack of conditional element to the voice suggests it is a certainty that the speaker’s decision will be utterly wrong and uncomplimentary.
what is the rhyme scheme of the poem and give an example
The poem follows a syncopated rhyming structure with ‘come and choose wrong’ and ‘o not for long’ repeated across the stanzas which aligns the decisions with being under time sensitive conditions yet without a satisfactory resolution.
nudged from comfort
whilst salesman endevaours to find new opportunities, speaker provides a contrast contained to his current life which is depicted as fairly monotonous and mundane. Yet the speaker questions that even if rejects the upcoming opporunity ‘happiness too is going’ and therefore he will be left with nothing.
what is the effect of the triple rhyme in the last stanza
‘knowing/blowing/going’
portrays a climax of tension when decision making, and the rapid, unstoppable speed of choice. Like many of Larkin’s poems the ending debate is left unresolved and uncertainty.
What does the poem of Toads begin with that establishes the speaker as holding non-conformist and a blustery attitude
The spondee rhyme scheme where the inconsistent stresses ‘Why/Let/Work’ emphasizes the speaker as rebellious in nature refusing to conform to a structured rhyme scheme breaking away from the expectations of the regularity in his working life
what does ‘squat on my life’ / six days a week it soils with its sickening posion’ imply
The verb conveys how work is a burden for the speaker and a source of discomfort where the addition of the sibilance depicts work as a poisonous and toxic force that causes destruction
how does the speaker initially view the function of work ?
the diminsiher ‘just for paying a few bills!’ details how the speaker finds no enjoyment and pleasure in his career stripped down to its most basic function as a means of financial survival.
What is the irony of the speaker arguing he will ‘never … blarney’
The irony is that throughout the poem the speaker uses extremely sophisticated langauge such as ‘Lispers/loses/loblolly-men’ with the archaic speech clearly depicting the speaker as a leaned man. The claims of the speaker are further disproven by the intertextual reference to Shakespeare’s The Tempest which is perhaps a way for Larkin to induce sardonic humor into the poem. The speaker matches and negates self criticism with intelligence.
‘tinned sardines’
A03
Perhaps Larkin alludes to the post war poverty in the 1950s at the time the collection was written, where supermarkets began to include mass produced tinned foods for their long shelf life and cheap production.
Their unspeakable wives are as skinny as whippets
what does the similie indicate about the speaker’s change in attitude?
The repetition of the collective pronoun enforces how the speaker is keen to dissociate with those who are poverty stricken even going as far to dehumanize them and perceiving them as inferior. The speaker is portrayed as holding complex views on work both resenting his job yet showing disdain toward those who are unemployed from antiauthoritarian to a judgmental attitude.
‘But i know all too well that’s the stuff that dreams are made on’
The argument marker indicates the Volta of the poem where the speaker comes to terms with the prospect of truly abandoning work as a fallacy where Prospero’s attempt to create a utopia is simply a ‘dream’ inaccurate and intangible.
how does the toad indicate the speaker’s shift toward acceptance?
‘for -something sufficently toad-like squats in me too’
The extended metaphor transforms into a second Psychological toad that appears more permanent and insidious than the external toad.
The speaker’s sense of acceptance is highlighted through the simile ‘cold as snow’ where the factual and objective element contrasts the blustery emotions the poem opened with and removes such revulsion to the idea of work.
hunkers are heavy as hard luck
the aspirant alliteration consolidates that whilst accepting of the toad it continues to bring discomfort somewhat asphyxiating the speaker where the toad is opressive.
The fame and the girl and the money
The polysyndeton indicates the speakers criticism of society’s unrealistic and highly superficial expectations of the rewards of work which contrasts the speaker’s desire for ‘blarney’ with the physical and demand for instant gratification of society.
‘But i do say its hard to loose either when you have both’
The inconclusive ending to the poem highlights how the speaker is left rapped in the argument of rebellion against work whilst simultaneously acknowledges his acceptance of it.
what is the technique used in ‘even so distant I can taste the grief’ and ‘he made you gulp’
Both the synesthesia and staccato monosyllables highlights the speaker’s compassion for the victim as though experiencing the grief which is palpable. Whilst the speaker is detached from the women in terms of time he aligns with her through sympathy.
