summary Flashcards
(8 cards)
Love Song In Age
A cynical view on relationships in which attitudes change over time, to show how love promises so much but fails to deliver
- A widowed women plays old records and reminisces about love, but it couldn’t take her out of reality then, and it doesn’t now.
- distant voice portraying grief and memory, shows how love changes with age
- more sentimental than others
- use caesura and encampment produces a reflection that moves irregularly
- people are foolish to believe in love, optimism in youth will eventually lead to disappointment
- music is youthful and fulfilling, but this is not reality
Links: before you were mine, litany, Pluto, moments of grace
Home is so Sad
A poem of intense regret: regret for life’s failed opportunities, regret for the past which remains unfulfilled and cannot be regained
- universal appeal, home isn’t specifics ideal of home versus the reality
- skeptical attitude towards family and domesticity
- sense of failed opportunity, objects inside mark loss
- Home becomes an embodiment of human idealism
- New Years Eve 1958. Father died, visiting his mothers home
Links: room, litany, never go back, adultery
The Whitsun Weddings
The protagonist is on a train and is awakened from a reverie by sounds of celebration. He realises that this is Whitsun, a traditional occasion for weddings, and this leads him into a series of meditations on the many courses life can take
- A journey from Hull to King’s Cross Station, observing wedding parties
- snobbish view of middle/ working class families also on marriage as a whole
- abut personas isolation and rejection of what he observes, sense of envy and self hatred
- rejection towards stereotypical marriages and love, suggest its fake and not actually reality
-Narrative-Iambic pentameter.
- Whitsun- marriage licenses prices suspended.
Links: litany, before you were mine, the captain…, moments of grace, first love, adultery, never go back, disgrace
Self’s the Man
Larkin contrast himself with a mythical other, Arnold, with a view to talking about who is the more selfish. The poem also exposes the negatives of marriage
contrast of bachelorhood to life of a married colleague who is viewed as less selfish for marrying
- stereotypical nagging wife and overwhelmed husband, sense of marriage being unfulfilling and repetitive
- sense of superiority over his own self awareness but still a sense of doubt over who is more selfish
- reflective tone to life’s purpose as a whole
Links: before you were mine, litany, moments of grace, Captain of the…
Talking in Bed
A poem which expresses misgivings about the possibility of human intimacy, and this touches upon the problematic value of human communication in general
- subject matter is straight forward but the exploration is deeper
-intimacy of bedroom switches our for isolation, ironic as there is a lack of intimacy
- familiarity breeds contempt, honest communication would be complex and painful not affectionate
- pathetic fallacy is symbolic for the turmoil of the couple who are sitting in silence
- no distinction characters, gives a universally applicable sense
Links: first love, litany, sleeping, close, steam
Reference Back
Reflects on the nature of time and the way it shows us what we once had, and what we have lost, which determines our future
- mother and son cannot connect, they appear to have little in common, only music is similar
- comments on the breakdown of relationship overtime and therefore how old memories can be painful and depressing
- lack of satisfaction at any age, being more connected to music than his mother, lack of emotional connection
- perhaps about Larkin seeing his mum after his dad died.
Links: before you were mine, moments of grace,
Wild Oats
The poem describes a particular period of Larkin’s life during which he was close to marrying a colleague from work when he in fact desired the friend, and the relationship failed
- tells of Larkin’s own emotional struggle to maintain a relationship with his fiancé whilst in love with another
- unequal gender dynamic- women are described by their physical looks, especially the bosom rose
- sense of anxiety with him being unable to gain a relationship with the attractive friend
- Jane Exall- english Rosen, Ruth bowman- fiancé, Exall is more intimidating because of her beauty
Links: first love, crush, adultery,
An Arundel Tomb
A sad poem that holds out the possibility of an answer to Larkin’s search for the meaning of life, and a way for him to overcome his fear of death. However he cannot quote commit himself fully to the promise that the monument seems to hold, that love is the answer.
- tomb is an image of permanence, cast in stone, they have survived the passage of time
- people don’t care for the history but only for the image shown
- sculptures take a modern stance that human nature is to love, skeptical of whether it is human instinct
- Inspired by visit to Chichester Cathedral by Larkin and Monica Jones, based on Earl and Countess
Links: Valentine, first love
