Talking In Bed- Larkin Flashcards
(7 cards)
About/context
The poem reflects Larkin troubled relationships with the women in his life
-He wrote this poem about himself and Monica Jones in 1960 at a time when he was beginning his flirtation ways to become affair with Maeve Brennan
-When women were unavailable and distant, he was excited and charming as they became available and closer he shot away
Monica Jones had been his partner for 10 years when he took up with Maeve and he managed to maintain relationships with both women for 17 years
-The poem is about PILLOWTALK the kind of conversations that lovers have before sleeping
-Should be a time for intimate exchanges and a way for establishing bond and affection. Instead he finds himself at a loss for words
-It’s another poem my liking use on an experience which is appoints him or lead him to question his belief
Structure
-The rhythms of speech as he leads us through the argument but like again you just rhyme to give a tight underlying structure of the poem the first line of each standard rhyming or rhyming with the last
-And the last line of each stanza rhyming with the second line of the next
-The final stanza has rhyming triplets bringing the rhymes together and his hair they become noticeable as he draws his bitter little conclusion.
“Emblem”
-represents a concept it is not real. It’s an ideal not real.
-Observing the couple from an outside perspective it’s a facade of an image on much to reality
“ ought to be easy/yet”
He claims talking in bed should be easy, but yet questions is assumption as they are both silent
-The word ought immediately reveals that it isn’t
-“ought” implying disconnect between expectations and reality
- a bed is traditionally a space of intimacy and openness but it has now become a symbol of emotional failure
- talking should come naturally but it becomes harder
‘ winds incomplete unrest builds and disperses clouds in the sky”
-Like can shift the focus to the outside room using pathetic fallacy to convey the difficulties of the relationship
-The winds incomplete unrest mirrors the separation between the two lovers and lacking anxiety
-Incomplete may reflect that no relationship is ever complete fitting in with Larkin pessimism
-It’s the predestined end of a relationship. The concept of love can never exist in its hole as it only brings disappointment
- the pathetic fallacy mirrors the couples emotional unease
- just as the sky offers no resolution the relationship is clouded and unstable
“Yet more and more time passes silently”
Focusing on what’s missing,
- showing how silence has grown
- creating a sense of emotional stagnation
- the passage of time in the relationship as t led to deeper understanding but detachment and discomfort
“ at this unique distance from isolation it become s more difficult to find words at once true and kind or not untrue and not unkind”
- event when trying to communicate the couple is trapped in ambiguity
- they struggle to find words that are both honest and gentle
- suggesting loss of trust and tenderness, no will to connect
- the phrasing reflects the complexity and failure of communication which leaves only half truths or harm
