Lines on a young ladies photograph album Flashcards
(18 cards)
Analyse: ‘yielded’ (Lines)
Military language suggests the speaker is almost predatory in their force while the woman is presented as reluctant in sharing her album
Analyse: ‘glossy’/’thick’/’rich’
the images are presented as attractively valuable as they draw the speaker in, suggesting the lady’s past was fulfilling
Analyse: ‘Too much confectionary…nutritious images’/ ‘my swivel eye hungers’
Semantic field of food presents the woman as an object to be enjoyed. The speaker is driven by innate desire as he unthinkingly driven to satiate his desire to look into the womans past
Analyse the second stansa of lines
The use of listing throughout the 2nd stansa is emphatic of the speakers quick movement from photo to photo to present him as consuming the woman’s past with frenzied excitement
Analyse: ‘these disquieting chaps who loll’
Use of colloquial language presents the woman’s past relationships as not being serious, undermining their value
Analyse: ‘Not quite your class, I’d say, dear, on the whole’
Mocking tone again dismisses the woman’s past relationships in a seemingly jealous manner. The use of caesura creates a formal sense of hesitation, which presents his affections for the woman as laboured despite his excitement surrounding her past.
Where is the volta in lines?
‘But O, photography!’ - change of subject to the limits and merits of photography rather than the interest in the woman’s past.
Analyse: ‘Faithful and disappointing!’
Juxtaposition between praise for the camera’s ability to capture the truth and the disappointing nature of this capturing of the imperfections of reality
Analyse: ‘Like washing lines, and Hall’s-distemper boards’
Simile - emphatic of the idea that photography can’t conceal the truth of imperfection or mundane reality
Analyse: ‘what grace// Your candour thus confers upon her face!’ (ask nathan about this quote)
Linguistic dislocation combines highly poetic language with more base simplistic ideas
Analyse: ‘a real girl in a real place’
Use of repetition conveys th speakers humanisation of the girl after considering the reality of her past
Analyse: ‘contract my heart’
Emphatic of strong emotional reaction to his desire for the woman as he feels a sense of regret in missing her youth. Could also refer to a legally binding contract to suggest the speaker feels trapped in his desire and regret.
Analyse: ‘looking out of date’
Polysemic phrase could refer to the physical album, but also to the woman herself, further emphasising the speakers bitterness at the reality that he has missed her prime in her youth.
Analyse: ‘surely, we cry//Not only at exclusion’
Emphatic of speakers regret surrounding the irretrievable past and his grief of this truth
Why does Larkin use enjambment between stansa 7 and 8?
‘yowl across//The gap’ - mirrors the distance between the past and the present which the speaker cannot cross
Analyse: ‘to condense’
photography imagery used to emphasise its’ power to capture an untouchable moment in time and act as a reminder of the irretrievable past.
Analyse: ‘it holds you like a heaven’
Use of simile to convey how the past is viewed with purity and innocence.
What biographical context can be linked to Lines?
Larkin had a keen interest in amateur photography.
