Talking In Bed

Analysis of Talking In Bed by Philip Larkin

Talking In Bed is about a couple finding it difficult to come up with something to say to each other whilst they are in bed, and realising that perhaps their relationship has come as far as it can. The setting of the bed suggests proximity, but in actuality the couple must feel lonely.

Larkin starts by saying 'Talking in bed should be easiest' - if you are sharing a bed you must have got to the stage where you are comfortable with each other, as it is supposed to be a close and intimate place. 'Lying there together goes back so far' shows that this is a long term relationship, which further shows that they should know how to deal with this situation.

However, 'time passes silently', with nothing being said by either of them. This is the first sign that the relationship is not going so well.

'And dark towns heap up on the horizon. None of this cares for us.' - They don't care if bad times are coming, it won't make a difference to how they are feeling now.
'This unique distance from isolation' - They are physically close to each other yet they have never felt further apart.
'It becomes still more difficult to find words at once true and kind, Or not untrue and not unkind.' - It's hard to be truthful and kind, but it's harder to act neutral, so they're veering close to being unkind and lying.

Toads Revisited

Analysis of 'Toads Revisited' by Philip Larkin

• Starts with a less aggressive tone than 'Toads', with the nicer image of the park.
• 'Should' makes us realise it's all an illusion, and reality is quite different to the nice playground he describes.
• Unpleasant images of the men you may encounter - creepy 'waxed-flashed out-patients' from hospitals, suspicious looking men in 'long coats'.
• Avoid work 'By being stupid or weak' - Larkin thinks their lives are pointless and passive.
• Content with work compared to these people. Secretary likely refers to Larkin's secretary lover Betty.
• 'Give me your arm, old toad'- friendly relationship withwork.
• 'Help me down Cemetery Road' - work helps him on the road to death - is he really any better off than everyone else?

Afternoons

Analysis of Afternoons by Philip Larkin

- The children are growing up and the mothers need to get over it

- 'Young mothers assemble' - every afternoon, part of the life cycle

- 'Setting free their children' - so they can grow up and be independent, but could also represent the mother feeling trapped since the child was born and wanting to be free of it

- 'husbands in skilled trades' - fairly well-off, not much to complain about except the 'estateful of washing' - daily chores of domestic life.

- 'the albums, lettered Our Wedding, lying near the television' - the TV is more important to the family than the wedding photos, not properly looked after, TV is main focus in the room.

- 'the wind is ruining their courting-places' - wind represents life; a destructive, unpredictable force that changes everything.

- 'Their beauty has thickened. Something is pushing them to the side of their own lives.' - children have taken away their beauty and their lives; giving birth affected the mother's physicaly and mental health, being the mother is the main priority now, as if they're are the supporting role in their own movie.

Dockery and Son

Analysis of Dockery and Son by Philip Larkin

- 'Dockery and Son' - a status symbol that Larkin will never have, envious

- Changes the subject in the first stanza to avoid talking about Dockery - talks about his own memories of the crazy nights they would have here

- 'I try the door where I used to live: Locked' - he can't reclaim his youth, he's been locked out of his past.

- 'I catch my train, ignored' - emphasises his lack of family to miss him if he's gone

- 'But Dockery, good Lord' - shock suddenly hits him of how different his life is to Dockery's, how much he has achieved in the time that has passed

- 'Well, it just shows how much... How little... Yawning' - even while thinking about how much time he has lost, he is wasting more time sleeping

- 'To have no son, no wife, no house or land' - has nothing to show for twenty years, hasn't accomplished anything

- 'a numbness registered the shock of finding out how much had gone of life' - hadn't realised how quickly life was passing, how much time he had wasted

- 'how convinced he was he should be added to! Why did he think adding meant increase? To me it meant dilution' - makes Dockery sound bigheaded, thinking the world needs another one of him. You're really spreading yourself out across your children, there'll be none of you left if you keep doing it.

- 'They're more a style our lives bring with them: habit for a while, Suddenly they harden into all we've got' - people don't really want kids at first, they just follow the system/ routine, then when you get older they're all you care about and all that matters in life (which is kinda sad)

- 'They rear like sand clouds' - fast, uncontrollable, unpredictable

- 'Whether or not we use it, it goes' - life is going by at the same speed no matter if you're not doing anything, so you might as well make the most of it and get everything you can out of it.

Love Poems

Analysis of An Arundel Tomb, Love Songs in Age, and Wild Oats by Philip Larkin

(Put together in one posts because I don't have many notes on them)

You know, I'm really glad you can read those notes. Very helpful.

An Arundel Tomb

- What I mainly got from this was lying and love.

- 'Their proper habits vaguely shown' - superficial, what you see on the statues is only a representation of the couple, it doesn't show what they were really like.

- 'One sees, with a sharp tender shock, His hand withdrawn, holding her hand' - why is it such a surprise to see him holding her hand? Is it because they never held hands in life because they weren't that close?

- 'Rigidly, they persisted, through engths and breadths of time.' - always together, nothing can stop them, even if they didn't want to be together they still kept up appearance.

'Time had transfigured them into untruth.' They are lying to excuse their behaviour as time goes on.

Love Songs in Age

- 'She kept her songs, they kept so little space' - very tidy person, only kept them because they wouldn't make much difference.

- 'One bleached... One marked... One mended' - songs could represent her, how she's trying to make herself look younger - bleached her hair, had surgery etc.

- 'She found them, looking for something else' - Serendipity - happy mistake.

- When you get old, you realise everything you haven't done in life that you wanted to. When you're young you thing you have all the time in the world.

- 'Love... still promising to solve and satisfy... It had not done so then, and could not now'. Love is supposed to make your life interesting and fun, but it hasn't for her, and now it never can because her husband has died.

Wild Oats

- Man likes girl, gets with her friend, pines over what could have been.

- Very degrading towards the girls - fact that he actually calls them 'girls' when they are women, 'bosomy English rose and her friend in specs' - defined by their most noticeable feature.

- Man is self-conscious of his looks - took out the less attractive friend because the 'bosomy rose' was too good for him, thought she was trying not to laugh.

- Keeps pictures of other girl in his wallet - unsatisfied with specs girl.

Water, First Sight, Days, and Nothing To Be Said

Analysis of Water, First Sight, Days, and Nothing To Be Said by Philip Larkin

Water

- Aims to challenge religion and its followers

- Larkin is not religious but understands that for some people it's their escapism, church is their comforting safe place.

- 'contruct a religion' - fabrication, manmade concept, not real, not worth the time.

- Lazy rhythm - flows irregularly like water

- Alliteration - 'dry, different' 'devout drench' - sounds like a dripping tap.

First Sight

- First step into the world on your own without your mother.

- Lambs born in winter, first sight is cold snow, think the world is cold and cruel.

- 'Earth's immeasurable surprise' - that it will be sunny and warm eventually.

- Represents life - you'll have bad days when everything sucks, but good things will be just around the corner, you just aren't aware of it yet.

Days

- Doesn't seem too concerned about the fact that he's dead.

- Doctor will visit when you die, priest at the funeral will pray for you.

Days to 'be happy in' - don't worry about the future, it's futile, live in the now. Don't worry about things you can't control.

- 'Solving the question' of death, how you're going to die. Only answer to life is death, so don't worry about how or when it's going to come.

Nothing To Be Said

- ' advance on death equally slowly' - Whatever you do in life, death is still coming.

- It doesn't matter where you're from, how nice you are, what you do in life - you're still going to die.

- Some people have accepted this - it 'means nothing' to them, as it's just what's coming to everyine. Some people fear it, it ruins their lives as they are constantly worrying about when it's coming.

Toads

Analysis of 'Toads' by Philip Larkin

'Toad' - not literal toad, but a metaphor for work and its obligations in society

Stanza 1

'Why should I let the toad work' - really hates work to compare it to a slimy old toad

'Squat' - not pleasant, work is dreary and soul-sucking 'brute'

Stanza 2

Life sucks because he has to work to pay his bills. 'Six days a week' ruined by work, poisonous to the mind. Quantity of work compared to what he gets out of it isn't in proportion.

Stanza 3

People have escaped the system and use their brains to work - lecturers just talk about what they know, 'losels, loblolly-men, louts' - worthless, foolish, offensive; not really what to aspire to be like. Alliteration of 'l' - like all these people are in some kind of team who have escaped hard work.

Stanza 4

'live up lanes with fires in a bucket' - homeless people, taking fallen food, 'seem to like it' - can't really do anything about it, have to make do.

Stanza 5

'Their nippers have bare feet' - can't afford shoes for the kids, families are malnourished yet not starved - looking on the bright side.

Stanza 6

'were I courageous enough to shout Stuff your pension!' - wishes he could do something to change it but knows he never will because that only happens in 'dreams'.

Stanza 7

'For something sufficiently toad-like squats in me, too' - he has an internal obligation to work, that is 'heavy as hard luck, And cold as snow' - internal struggle.

Stanza 8

Will never be able to sweet-talk his way to the big three; 'the fame and the girl and the money' - doesn't want to have to work for them.

Stanza 9

The internal toad didn't create the external one, and vice versa, but their co-existence makes life hard for him.

The Whitsun Weddings

Analysis of The Whitsun Weddings by Philip Larkin

'The Whitsun Weddings' follows Larkin on a train journey from Lincolnshire to London on Whitsun Day, when marriage taxes are free and more people are encouraged to get married.

"all cushions hot" - The train is uncomfortable because of the other people. It's like a bonding experience with the other passengers.

"Canals with floatings of industrial froth" - pollution is making the natural world unpleasant.

"Until the next town, new and nondescript" - so new that is is bland and lacking distinguishing features; it's just the same as any other town.

"grinning and pomaded, girls in parodies of fashion, heels and veils, all posed irresolutely, watcing us go" - Larkin finds the make-up creepy, the women are unsure of what they are doing - maybe they have cold feet

"mothers loud and fat; An uncle shouting smut; and then the perms, The nylon gloves and jewellery-substitutes" - grotesque, unatural and disgusting - cheap tacky working class weddings, 'substitutes' - nothing is real, maybe not even the relationship because they're only getting married because it is cheaper this day. Larkin is bitter and resentful.

"The secret like a happy funderal" - oxymoronic; ceremony of the 'end', comparing wedding to funeral - life is over? 

"Thought of the others they would never meet" - they will never have the chance to meet someone new and experience this with someone else, stuck with this person forever now, maybe regretting it.

Take One Home For The Kiddies

Analysis of Take One Home For The Kiddies by Philip Larkin

Take One Home For The Kiddies is about children asking their mother to buy them some sort of small rodent, then it dying because kids are incapable of caring for anything.
Larkin describes the animal's life through its living arrangements - 'shallow' could refer to the short, meaningless life rodents live, in conditions where the sun shines in their eyes through 'shadeless glass' and with 'empty bowls' showing that even the shop owner doesn't care enough to remember to feed them. The rodent's deprivation is further shown in the next line:

"No dark, no dam, no earth, no grass-"

This makes us feel sympathy for the animals - taken away from their mother and kept in the dark, away from their natural habitat, just to satisfy some stupid kid who won't appreciate it.

In the second stanza the rodent becomes a 'living toy', showing how kids don't treat it properly. The excitement of a new toy 'soon wears off' and they move on to a game of 'funerals'. This shows how kids are unaware of the real world, treating everything like a game that doesn't have any consequences. 

Here

Analysis of Here by Philip Larkin

In Here, Larkin takes use on a journey to an unknown destination that is known as 'here''. The langage he uses creates imagery which enhances the journey and makes use feel as if we are actually there.

The title word 'here' isn't actually used in the poem until the last stanza, which builds suspense through the first stanzas on where we are heading. 
Larkin repeats 'swerving' three times in the first stanza, emphasizing the movement to make it seem like the narrator is in a rush to get away from this ugly 'gull-marked town' to get to his destination. 'Swerving' could also represent how hectic traffic is in towns and cities. 
Larkin repeatedly refers to how unattractive the town is, talking about the 'grain-scattered streets' and 'raw estates'. This shows how digusted he is by the town, and makes us more curious to see where the place is he is heading that he must actually like.

Larkin uses alliteration and sibilance in the first two stanzas, first 'skies and scarecrows, haystacks, hares'. This increases the fluidity of the movement to 'here', transporting the reader there easier.

Ambulances

Philip Larkin 'Ambulances' Analysis

Ambulances follows, unsurprisingly, an ambulance as it takes someone on their last journey in life. It talks about the fact that we are all going to eventually die, and although we know this will happen to everyone, we are still afraid of dying.

Themes

The main theme of this poem is the fact that death is inevitable.

"All streets in time are visited."

This is basically saying that everyone will die at some point in their lives, whether this is early on or after a long time. Despite seeming morbid, this is the fate that awaits us all, and Larkin is simply being realistic. The word 'visited' is an interesting one to use, as this usually signifies something good, whereas in actuality whenever we see an ambulance we pray it's not going to someone we know because they often mean death is coming.

"The solving emptiness that lies just under all we do."

This shows that we know that death is coming for us, and this knowledge affects the decisions we make - we assess the risk involved to decide whether it's something that could end our lives sooner rather than later. It could also be referring to the fact that when we die and are buried, it is under ground, so literally under our feet.

Interesting Language

"Children strewn on steps or roads"

The use of strewn in this line makes the children seem careless, as they are too young too think about the risks of playing on roads. Larkin then mentions women in the next line, suggesting that it is their fault for not looking after their children properly.

"It is carried away and stowed"

Larkin addresses the person in the ambulance as 'it', which could be because they are nearing death, when gender is irrelevant because you are just a corpse. The body is also 'stowed' away like an object until it is needed for the funeral. This is further shown in the following quote:

"The unique random blend of families and fashions, there at last begin to loosen."

This shows that who you spent time with and what you liked in life, the things that made you different from the next person, don't matter in death, so maybe aren't so important in life either.

"The fastened doors recede."

 This is talking about the ambulance doors closing and the onlookers watching as the life inside is taken away from the world. It reflects the fact that once you have died, you can't come back to life.