Larkin Poems
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- Created by: Suman Hussain
- Created on: 25-03-14 20:26
Here
- Poem about place, Hull
- Themes: Loneliness, journeys, nature, critical of masses-people (lower class), meocony tone- peasamiestic tone
- About train journey from London to Hull
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Mr Bleaney
- sense of place
- speaker of powem is moving in the room
- the person showing him around is the women
- About previous occupoer who died
- 4 lines in stanza called Quatrain
- relates to Larkin- isolated, dull and no relations like him (solutary figure)
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Love Songs in Age
- About a women who finds music records when she was young girl
- About memories and looking back into the past
- About thinking that the good things are going to happen but in the future you just get disappointed with life
- Ideal vs Reality
- About how she used to think about love
- Nostalgic- longing of the past, Remembering the good times
- She never found love/ Love didn't do these things for her as she is a widow now- suggestion of her love not being like this even though she was married- she missed out
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Toads Revisited
- Poem about people not working and how Larkin felt about these people
- He saw these people in the park at Hull from his falt- Pearson Park
- Thinks of them in a negative way
- Represented- fear of being them and how they are, doesn't want a meaningless life
- Larkin has a fear of a meaningless life, self doubt (Self to man)
- Very simple language talking about simple people- lower class
- Images of time passing
- Rhyme Scheme stands out- A,A,B,B- to emphaisis his point that its not for him and he is not like that
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Self's the Man
- Title- Being selfish is a good thing
- Persona in character of Arnold is differnet from Larkin- marriage and children
- Misogenistic- Anti-women and sterotypical and negative view of women
- Cant hear the rhyme scheme all the way through becuase of the hidden enjabment which could show he is not happy with this life
- Quatrain- 4 line stanza
- Both are selfish but Larkin knows how much he can take unlike Arnold who can't
- Not really poetic language- shows *** simple Arnold's life is
- Materialistic
- Themes: Misogenistic (Sunny Prestatin & Wild Oats), Loneliness (Mr Bleany) and Ideal vs Reality
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MCMXIV (1914)
- Poem is a full sentence- like he is showing old photographs
- Roman numerals- makes poem feel old- antique
- Nostalgic poem- Something from the past
- Critical of modern society and saying mankind reason of war
- Strong rhyme to week showing something is getting lost- men at war and the innocence is lost
- Themes: Death- Litteral soldiers and metorphorical innocence, Loss of innocence and shift of values
- Stanza 2 images of past
- Stanza 3 More rural scene
- One fullstop to emphasis the end
- End of poem and end of innocence
- Similar to Love songs in Age- how in both how nostalgic the past was
- Similar to Mr Bleany- Death
- Links to Abse: Cousin Sidney, My cousin the soldier, Terrible Angels and Two photographs- relate to theme of war
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Talking in Bed
- About relationship with Monica Jones- she moved in with him and was an on going affair in his life
- Poem about being physically close but being emotionally apart from each other- unusuall for Larkin as he is not usually emotional he is critical
- 4 Stanzas, 3 Lines
- Polgnant Poem- sad
- Enjaberment- suggesting on going situation
- Ideal vs Reality
- Rhyme is not proper- like trying to speak but cannot
- Emotionally tense for Larkin
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Sunny Prestatyn
- Poem about disullusionment- links with Love songs in age
- Ironic title- using it through a poster in Prestatyn- Wales it rains a lot- ironic as title says sunny
- Place in Wales
- Misogestic view of women- nothing positive about them
- Larkin Pesimestic view of life
- Stanza 2- Phallic imagery
- Ideal vs Reality
- Replaced by another poster for cancer- Larkin terrified of death especially cancer- the he got it at the end
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Wild Oats
- When Larkin in his 20s- Poem about Ruth Bawkan his girlfriend for 7 years
- Title- Euphemism: phrases that means something else- sowing wild oats means sleeping with other women before marriage- ironic title as Larkin didn't sleep with Jane
- Women seen as objects- sexual side (Sunny Prestatyn)
- 8 line Stanzas- Octave
- Contrast of 2 girls- Jane and Ruth
- Very honest poem- like he is confessing something
- Ideal vs Reality
- Reflecting on past events
- Enjaberment - show 7 year relationship
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Essential Beauty
- Poem about advertising in the early 60s
- Title: what we are told in advertisment arn't always essential- ironic
- Describes advertisments that disrupt our realistic life
- Criticism towards content of adverts
- Illusion of them is emphasised
- Ideal vs Reality
- 16 Line stanzas
- Stanza 2 images of illusion are destroyed
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Afternoons
- About time passing- using seasons as metaphor of passing of time
- Larkin is the observer- doesn't want this life
- Free verse rhyme becuase to show thier lives are empty
- Title: not really important time of day
- Common theme: disillusionment of life
- Themes: Time, Death, Gender, Meaningless of life, Ideal vs Reality (Sunny Prestatyn, Love Songs of Age) and Self's the Man- observing other peoples lives
- Enjamberment shows cycle of life- time moved on
- He feels sorry for them and their life
- Sterotypical view of young mothers and lower/middle class people
- Routine lives- now the adults run around the children
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An Arundel Tomb
- Monument in Chichester Cathedral
- Stone effigy ( statue on top of grave) is of Richard Fitzalan (10th Earl of Arundel, died in 1376) and second wife Earlornor also died
- Ideal vs Reality (Love songs in age, Sunny Prestatyn, Wild Oats)
- Misinterpretation in the meaning
- Time passing
- Modern society doesn't understand higher/powerful roles- time era has gone
- Thye didn't have it done for internal love only made it so that friends could see it- they wanted something commised after they died
- At the end its almost the mocking of the hand of love- thinks its a sentimental poem but its not
- An illusion- doesn't belive in it- doesn't belive in immortality- you just die
- Thye didn't intend to become a monument of internal love
- Constant Rhyme Scheme- A,B,B,C,A,C
- Larkin explains how people are differnet from back then- he likes the older type of society- negative attitude towards change and modern society
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