Themes: war and the effect it has on people
Links to: Larkin's MCMXIV
title is a paradox/oxymoron in itself
"horses to bolt and flocks of meat-snatching birds to rise" - a cycle - vultures -> pick at the dead - violent imagery
First stanza - shows how we view war as heroic, a tribute to their country, "his war medals, their pretty coloured ribbons" - then the second stanza shows us what war is really like from a war veteran's perspective
"When they spoke it was the silence of gas" - sibilance - gas was a silent killer - violent/deadly
"when they sang it was shrapnel striking helmet" - sibilance - whatever they did something bad happened - violent imagery
"finally, soldiers' prayers and soldiers' screams" - "finally" - their death was inevitable/ bound to happen - build up to their deaths - contrast of two different deaths - religious and violent
"thrilled the cold angels to steal the muskets of the dead" - angels wouldn't usually be "thrilled" by death - "cold angels" - paradox/oxymoron - death - "steal" - crime - angels are seen as innocent and pure - still even in death they are trying to fight, to win
"to become stealthily visible" - paradox/oxymoron - stealing the dead's muskets makes them "stealthily visible" - careful but wants them to be seen?
"bold and bloodthirsty" - alliteration - animalistic qualities have arose in their death - lost morale - no longer civilised - violent imagery
"true facsimiles of men" - "facsimiles" -> exact copy - this is what they were like when they were alive but when they died and became angels this has awakened their "bloodthirsty" nature that was already within them - because they're now invisible they don't have to hide that side of themselves
Last stanza - he come back from war injured and now is trapped in his home - reliving what he saw and what he went through - seeing it repeatedly over and over again - war has left him weak and unhealthy - he remembers more about it as he keeps seeing it
Wednesday, 16 April 2014
In The Theatre
the patient was still awake while the doctor was searching in his brain for a tumour/growth
"small voices, small lies" - making everything else seem insignificant - he's too a lie, he's not "fine"
"blink again and again" - every time he blinks he feels pain because of what Dr Lambert Rogers is doing to him only under general anaesthesia for brain surgery
"rash as blind's man" - doctor can't see what he's touching in his brain - violent language - he can't see the effects of what he's doing to the patient - he can only see "inside his soft brain"
"If items of horror can make a man laugh then laugh at this" - "horror" connotes violence and being terrified - if a man laughs at something horrible then this is another level of horror
irregular rhyme scheme could relate to the patient's in-and-out consciousness or the irregularity of the procedure he is undergoing
"ticking its own wild time" - under so much pressure - frantic - feeling so much pain
"more brain mashed" - violent - constantly played with - his brain being poked/pushed about
doctor is "desperate" - its already been an hour - he really wants to find the growth/mass
"probe's braille path" - broiled is something blind people use to read - the doctor is using his brain as path for his probe to find the tumour but he can't see - going in 'blind'
the doctor is in a rush and "thinking 'Christ!' Two more on the list" - he's been trying to fin this tumour for an hour and he has two ore patients to operate on after this
"the cracked record in the brain" - the patient has had enough - he can't take the pain of what the doctor's doing anymore
he says "leave my should alone" in a "ventriloquist voice" - he can't physically speak it because he's in so much pain so he's saying it to himself in his mind
"patient's dummy eyes" - could suggest a ventriloquist dummy or that the doctor is treating him as his own personal dummy to experiment on
"the patient's eyes too wide" - doctor's gone too far - he feels so much pain its unbearable - serious as the doctor is "shocked" by this
"nurses, students, sister petrified" - viewing gallery - loads of people are watching the horrible surgery - "petrified" - strong violent imagery - shocking
"that voice so arctic" - his blood turning cold - his body is shutting down - he's loosing his life - "that cry so odd" - he doesn't recognise himself anymore - no longer himself - dying
"the words began to blur and slow" - he's slowing dying/fading away - "leave my soul alone" repeated many times shows its importance to him and how the patient doesn't want the doctor to keep doing this to him that his soul breaks - wants his soul to remain intact - he needs it in order to go to heaven - religious imagery
"And silence matched the silence under snow" - he's finally gone after all he went through - his pain is over - "snow" connotes purity, innocence, angelic, heavenly - everything is clear now - he still has is soul - in heaven?
The Boasts of Hywell ab Owain Gwynedd
Religious imagery - "I praise the Lord", "dry old hymns"
"Sunday, skilled in zealous verse" - sibilance
"her" being on it's own line emphasises her importance to him
describes her using fruits - "my peach of a woman", "rosy apple skin" - sweet, perfect
"me vegetarien diet" - vegetarians have everything but meat - they have everything but marriage - not keeping their relationship/love a secret
he's always trying to impress her - "dry old hymns I steal to please her", "I kneel to ease her"
"sweet riot" - paradox/oxymoron - he knows it's wrong but it feels right
Final Stanza - he can't control himself or his feelings for her
"efflorescence" - their love blooming/growing stronger
"let her name be secret for her husband's sake" - repetition of "her" here emphasis that she is the one who is married - they're having an affair?
"be sure my busy tongue keeps quiet" - he wants it to remain a secret but he has such strong feelings for her
"Sunday, skilled in zealous verse" - sibilance
"her" being on it's own line emphasises her importance to him
describes her using fruits - "my peach of a woman", "rosy apple skin" - sweet, perfect
"me vegetarien diet" - vegetarians have everything but meat - they have everything but marriage - not keeping their relationship/love a secret
he's always trying to impress her - "dry old hymns I steal to please her", "I kneel to ease her"
"sweet riot" - paradox/oxymoron - he knows it's wrong but it feels right
Final Stanza - he can't control himself or his feelings for her
"efflorescence" - their love blooming/growing stronger
"let her name be secret for her husband's sake" - repetition of "her" here emphasis that she is the one who is married - they're having an affair?
"be sure my busy tongue keeps quiet" - he wants it to remain a secret but he has such strong feelings for her
Tuesday, 15 April 2014
The Malham Bird
first section in the past
"(For Joan)" - his wife
"that long summer a clarity of marvels" - even though he's experienced something life changing "no morning news announced the great world had been reinvented" - his life has changed but no-one knows it
"more than together" - they're just together because of their love it transcends that
now into the present
"three grandchildren later"
comparing his wife to the "malham of eden" - the only bird that was allowed to stay in Eden - symbol of pure goodness - the other birds "pecked the forbidden fruit"- she is a paragon of good
"lonely immortal forever winging over the banished gardens of Paradise" - important and sad final image - we think of her as this good peaceful but alone
"the tame seagull" and the "friendly gull" could also be compared to her too
means of the sea - the sea is endless and his love for her is endless and will last forever
"(For Joan)" - his wife
"that long summer a clarity of marvels" - even though he's experienced something life changing "no morning news announced the great world had been reinvented" - his life has changed but no-one knows it
"more than together" - they're just together because of their love it transcends that
now into the present
"three grandchildren later"
comparing his wife to the "malham of eden" - the only bird that was allowed to stay in Eden - symbol of pure goodness - the other birds "pecked the forbidden fruit"- she is a paragon of good
"lonely immortal forever winging over the banished gardens of Paradise" - important and sad final image - we think of her as this good peaceful but alone
"the tame seagull" and the "friendly gull" could also be compared to her too
means of the sea - the sea is endless and his love for her is endless and will last forever
A Figure of 8
a criticism of the education system
as a child he felt like he was in a prison "jail" and when he left the classroom he's "free"
his imagination is contained in the classroom and then we see the contrast when he leaves the classroom as his imagination runs wild - the power of imagination in a child
in his imagination he "flies to Africa" and gets involved in a battle, someone "bombed the park" and he sees "a spaceship" - this occurs on his walk home from school - turns ordinary objects into these amazing imaginative things
"fuck winnie the pooh" - the classroom isn't allowing his imagination to soar as it should and his imagination is on fined to childish things
Could link to Larkin's A Study of Reading Habits
as a child he felt like he was in a prison "jail" and when he left the classroom he's "free"
his imagination is contained in the classroom and then we see the contrast when he leaves the classroom as his imagination runs wild - the power of imagination in a child
in his imagination he "flies to Africa" and gets involved in a battle, someone "bombed the park" and he sees "a spaceship" - this occurs on his walk home from school - turns ordinary objects into these amazing imaginative things
"fuck winnie the pooh" - the classroom isn't allowing his imagination to soar as it should and his imagination is on fined to childish things
Could link to Larkin's A Study of Reading Habits
A Wall
even though we don't understand things sometimes like why a wall is randomly there - "begins in no reason ends no place" it can still be "beautiful" - in this way he could either be talking about life or religion
quite a philosophical poem - how life can be "seaming unremarkable" - it can be beautiful and our faith is an amazing thing
The Death of Aunt Alice
Juxtaposing her vivid, wild imagination of her life with a very orderly contained funeral service
"sparrows became vampires" she had a vivid imagination - used to make things up
dreamt up some amazing scenarios - "fords on the M4 upside down"
she died - her funeral didn't reflect her personality - death can't capture a person's personality
contrast between her wild imagination and the finality of her death - she's not here anymore - gone forever
Abse imagines her in heaven telling more "tall stories" to saints in heaven
religion is the save and grace of the poem - through a belief in God he finds solace in his aunt's death
Imitations
Snow in April - "surprised April" - things happening out of sequence - unnatural - unexpected
"snowflakes" - could be blossom and he's seeing something that isn't actually there - imagining there to be snow - illusions
"he is my chameleon, my soft diamond, my deciduous evergreen" - his son is something that can be molded - 'diamond' he's precious to him - something he prides himself of having
"immortal Spring time" - rebirth and things cycles - family cycles
going back into the past - when he was a teenager with his father - " I his duplicate" - a memory of how he is like his father - 'duplicate' relates to 'my chameleon' - father and son - a son adopts the traits of their father
seeing "two white butterflies" causes him to recall the past in the present - represents him and his father
"butterflies" - only live for a day - fleeting - you will die but the cycle keeps going on like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly - links to deciduous evergreen" - the leaves are shed but the tree will always be there
Abse is like the tree and his son is one of the leaves - he will have children - more leaves not he tree - strong image
"snowflakes" - could be blossom and he's seeing something that isn't actually there - imagining there to be snow - illusions
"he is my chameleon, my soft diamond, my deciduous evergreen" - his son is something that can be molded - 'diamond' he's precious to him - something he prides himself of having
"immortal Spring time" - rebirth and things cycles - family cycles
going back into the past - when he was a teenager with his father - " I his duplicate" - a memory of how he is like his father - 'duplicate' relates to 'my chameleon' - father and son - a son adopts the traits of their father
seeing "two white butterflies" causes him to recall the past in the present - represents him and his father
"butterflies" - only live for a day - fleeting - you will die but the cycle keeps going on like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly - links to deciduous evergreen" - the leaves are shed but the tree will always be there
Abse is like the tree and his son is one of the leaves - he will have children - more leaves not he tree - strong image
The Mistake
people wanting to believe that something is true
"disguise" - about people hiding behind lies - not being honest and forcing themselves to believe things are true when they'r not
look closet - the tree is just a tree - "its not ashamed" - its ashamed of its nature
"shamelessly free of disguise" - the tree doesn't care whether its considered a "treasure" or if its exotic or something to be boasted about - it just wants to be true to itself
Links to Larkin's Sunny Prestatyn
The Game
Abse is at a football match
Everything is black and white - "good" and "evil" - no in-between
A lot of religious imagery to back up this idea of "good vs. evil"
"the very name sad as the old songs" - the idea that we will always be trapped in this same cycle and not able to let go of the past - remembering the past through music
"fans guess the result halfway through" - represents how like life we can guess what's going to happen - they are depressed because they know the reality of life
"the honest team dribbles ineffectively" - the team that are honest don't get anywhere
"trampled" - aggressive, violent imager - how life beats you down
"natural the dark" - the idea that evil wins because "dark" connects with evil
Down the M4
"scared to hear my mother's news" - Abse is afraid to her about another person's death is afraid to hear"mother's face is in her ninth decade" - scared about time running out - the inevitability of death - can feel death coming for him and his mum - he doesn't want to say how old she is -ninety- scares him because death is unescapable
"her friends are disrobed" - post-mortem but the single line is confusing until you read the next line
"the hole" - grave - talks around death - never direct about it - doesn't want to confront death head-on
"too" - repetition - shows that it keeps happening, and his increasing fear
"monotonous story of clocks" - "clocks" represent time- the inevitability of death
"hair turning grey" - ageing, again time passing
"perishable" - dying
"the tawe ran fluent" - water rushing indicates the natural passing of time
"his mother's mother" - looking back at people that are now gone - his mother will eventually die
"you're no Jewess" - history of discrimination - insulting
"under the M4 again" - cycle of life - poem begins and ends with him being on the M4
"the bridges leap over me then shrink in my side mirror" - represent his life - ageing and how life disappears
"and God further than all distance known" - feels such a distance from religion because its not bringing him any comfort - people are continuously dying - God is killing the people he loves
"like the tune my mother knows it won't keep" - just like that won't last - his life won't last
feels disconnected from religion and that everything is transitory, fleeting
"the tawe ran fluent" - water rushing indicates the natural passing of time
"his mother's mother" - looking back at people that are now gone - his mother will eventually die
"you're no Jewess" - history of discrimination - insulting
"under the M4 again" - cycle of life - poem begins and ends with him being on the M4
"the bridges leap over me then shrink in my side mirror" - represent his life - ageing and how life disappears
"and God further than all distance known" - feels such a distance from religion because its not bringing him any comfort - people are continuously dying - God is killing the people he loves
"like the tune my mother knows it won't keep" - just like that won't last - his life won't last
feels disconnected from religion and that everything is transitory, fleeting
Tuesday, 1 April 2014
Return to Cardiff
Themes: place/home/journey
Links to Abse's Down the M4 and On The Coast
Larkin's Here
Abse has "an affection" for the city he lives in -> shows he has strong feelings for his hometown
Stanza 1 - 2nd and 3rd line -> reference to his childhood memories -> "my first botched love affair" -> teenage life and the difficulties he's had with relationships (this quote also links to Abse's Blonde Boys)
"a raid on mislaid identities" -> he's lost sight of who they are his perceptions of them have changed
"the mile-wide Taff now a stream" -> when he was younger everything seemed 'larger than life'
"joiners façade" -> everything was simple that he could turn into a game - a different place to what it actually is
"white" -> in reference to Abse's grandfather -> white suggests innocence and purity
Stanza 4 -> he loves the place he imagined it to become but how he doesn't recognise it - " a city of strangers, alien and bleak"
"waterscapes that wonder" -> alliteration
"uneasily diverted by mere sense of reflections" -> his love for Cardiff hasn't changed even though what he envisioned is different to how it is now (how it turned out)
"dark playground" -> reference to his childhood - the memory is fading slowly to black
"gunshots" -> connotes violence
"illusory" and "real" -> shows a juxtaposition between his memories and how the same place is very different before he moved away -> only thing left is the smell
"the other Cardiff had gone" -> using "no sooner than I'd arrived" suggests that almost straight away he had noticed the change and that Cardiff wasn't the same
He is constantly being reminded of the "old Cardif" by small things but they were important things to him
"the boy I was not and the man I am not met" -> the two people he thought he was (he's not anymore) -> represents the two fazes of his life that are in Cardiff
"then walked out" -> shows that he knows that both he and Cardiff have both changed
Wednesday, 26 March 2014
Postcard to His Wife
This poem is much more personal than Larkin's when he talks about the relationship he has with women
"You" and "I" and "Abse's" -> second personal pronouns
"and the dulcamara of memory" -> bittersweet memories
"and the Venus de Milo is only stone" -> believed to depict the Greek Goddess of love and beauty, Aphrodite - but it's only stone to Abse - still and cold - Abse believed that without his wife that life had no meaning
"I know the impoverishment of self" -> feels in poverty without his wife
"So come home. The bed's too big! Make excuses." -> he's lonely without her - feels a void in his heart - feels empty without her in his life
"Hint we are agents in an obscure drama" -> adventures
"and must go North to climb 2000 feet" -> maybe something he and his wife used to do together and was personal to them
He would do anything to have her back
Stanza 3 -> he would be perfectly happy in just his wife's company and the nature around: "cornfields", "hedges" and "roses"
Stanza 4 -> "blessed" to be together if they could be -> "sand dunes and blessed, mimc the old gods" - act how Gods said the happy way to be holy was heavenly love
"whim, "twisting" and "wild" -> adventures together - doing simple things
Excessively devoted to his wife -> unhealthy maybe? - still in mourning
Absence can't make the heart grow fonder because it's not humanly possible to love anymore, more than he loved his wife - his everything -> he has undying and irrevocable love for his wife is no longer alive
The structure - the exclamation marks and the emotions shown make it really realistic - like he is calling out for his wife to come back to him - begging her
Abse -> writes from own experiences
Larkin -> writes from out observer's perspective (of other people's lives)
Connects to Larkin's 'Love Songs in Age', 'An Arundel Tomb' 'Wild Oats'
Red Balloon
-> freedom - happiness - youth - innocence
-> vibrant
"over chapels, over chimney-pots" -> over the people
About a child who owns a red balloon that others dislike and want to destroy so the boy hides inside away from them -> Abse is standing out - has the ownership of a possession he cares for - relates to his religion of being a jew
"til it shone like living blood" -> connotations of violence and death -> reference to the red balloon and how he is considered an outcast over his religion
"it was my sham, it was my joy" -> oxymoron - confused - like being different but doesn't fit in
"it cased to be a toy" -> not a game - he takes it seriously
"soared higher like a happiness towards the dark blue sky" -> religion makes him happy but leads to terror and argument
"I boasted of my unique, my only precious" -> too proud of his beliefs/values?
"It's a Jew's balloon" -> look down - frown upon his religion
"it would not burst" -> strong - he fights for his beliefs
"laughed", "cursed", "lunged" and "clawed" -> violent actions - mocking
"bled my nose, cute my eye" -> beliefs destroys himself - gets attacked for his opinions -> references to blood which is red back to the red balloon and how he is interacted with through violence against him and his religion
"Give up", "I don't know exactly why" -> doesn't understand why he should let them get what they want -> prevent him from having a voice and celebrating his religion and what he believes
"brash boys" -> alliteration
"insult my faith and steal my red balloon" -> he's proud of his faith/beliefs - he deserves to have a voice
Links to Larkin's 'Water' and Abse's 'Quests' through faith/religion/beliefs
Leaving Cardiff
Main theme: Identity
change and belonging -> Abse's feelings towards Cardiff
he feels Cardiff is changing -> setting -> Docks - the sea and Cardiff relax him
"evening air" -> sense of ending
"sea-birds drop down" -> natural cycle -> "down to the sea"
"docks" -> "derelictions" -> alone - isolated - ruins
"furthest star seem near" -> familiar surroundings - like home -> Abse is sad to leave - questioning why he's leaving
"me eyes, like spaces, fill" -> crying - emotions
"flames flare" -> alliteration
sense of place -> situation - poetic devices - structure
Rhyme Scheme -> ABAC ABCC ABAB ABAB ABAB
Stanza 3 -> leaving childhood behind
Stanza 4 -> if he stays in Cardiff he can't be the person he wants to be "made no choice" - shift - self doubt - "can I be the same twice" -> connotes challenging and doesn't want any change
Stanzas 5-7 -> imagery of industrialisation - "Penarth unload and move on" -> things move on even though he's leaving and when he returns they would have changed
Links to Larkin's 'Whitsun Weddings' -> a journey - describes surroundings -> Larkin doesn't get upset like Abse does
Also links to Larkin's 'Dockery and Son' -> life choices
At Ogmore-by-sea this August Evening
"estuary" -> horizon - part of something bigger
"My father - who, self taught, scraped upon" -> violin usually flows soft - shows contrast
"Darker than the darkening evening" -> reflective of himself - the environment effects a person? or could be pathetic fallacy
"unified" ->spiritual
"The music summons night." -> romantic/intimate
"It's twenty minutes later into August Before the gaudy sun sinks to Australia." -> evening ending - becoming night -> "gaudy" -> sun = artificial - selfish? -> "sinks" - lines to natural theme - refers to ship - prisoners to Australia
"anthracite" -> coal = burning - natural -> its soft glow/sheen makes it haunting
"As its spotlit prow a pale familiar" -> death
"carnival" -> a 'carnival' seems too joyful considering how dark this poem is
"no foghorns howl" -> dogs often howls when sad or are mourning -> wolves howl to signal their location to the rest of the pack and when a member of the pack is hurt, injured or dead = the persona- the night is clear
"here, father, here tonight" -> Abse is reminiscent of his father like Larkin is of his mother
"three far lighthouses converse in dotty exclamation marks" -> these lighthouses are important - hold significance in the poem
"of the tumult the sea" -> sea of should that have died? - carry death to the shore towards a person
Links to Larkin's 'Reference Back' and 'A Winter Visit' -> loss, music and memories - relationship with their mother
Sons
"Sarcastic sons slam" -> alliteration/sibilance
"of Cardiff outskirts where, once captured acres played" -> looking back on how he was in his youth (when he was a son not a father)
"Now my son is like that, altering every day", "I was like that; also like" -> his son is now acting like how he used to -> links to Larkin's 'Dockery and Son' - how father and son are both alike in their youth
"At the frontier of Nowhere order and chaos clash" -> 'frontier of Nowhere' could be referring to youth and wanting to find yourself
"and being adolescent was both prim and brash" -> juxtaposition of two opposites/oxymoron - 'prim and brash' highlights changing emotions
"strange a London door should slam and I think thus. of Cardiff evenings" -> persona is here using opposites to describe his son - a reference to his son not knowing who he is yet? -> "wrongly named" -> "Awkward Anglo-Welsh half town, half countryside"
"son, you are like that and I love you for it. In adult rooms." -> persona could be empathising with his son as he reminds him of himself when he was young - maybe makes him think of the relationship he had with his father
"Too soon maturity will switch off your night thrust fake electronic roots, the nameless becoming wrongly named and your savage darkness bright." -> this here could be the persona looking back with perspective - his warning to his son that this will happen to him too like it did to himself
Looking back with perspective could link to Larkin's 'Reference Back' and 'Love Songs in Age'
Rhyme Scheme -> C+D and 6th line of stanzas 2,3 and 4 -> Stanza 1 -> D+F -> the pattern begins irregularly - could represent his son's adolescence and changing/erratic emotions?
Welsh Valley Cinema1930s
"slums", "pit" and "darkness" -> lexical field suggests that there is something special in a run down area
"changing colour" -> light and sound - new technology would have been wonderful and magical to him - a chance to see something different? view life in a different way?
"musical asthma" -> it's something beautiful but not quite right - takes your breath away?
"When the Broadway Baby says Goodnight it's Early in the morning'" -> he may be watching Gold Diggers of 1935 - these are lyrics from a song in it called Lullaby of Broadway - strongly links to Larkin and how he writes about the importance of music in his poems
"poor ragged Goldilocks", "glycerine tears" -> there's something fake/false about the tears - they're not quite genuine -> glycerine is very sweet
"cuff-linked Cary Grant", "elegance of chandeliers", "(No files on Cary. No holes in his socks.)" -> Cary Grant is a very famous and talented early Hollywood film star
"Woodbine smoke swirled", "THE END" -> very visual - smoke is quite abstract and relates to when people could smoke in cinemas (public places) - it maybe suggesting the same things about the film -> "THE END" is how most old films end
"malice of the dreary" -> cinema was his escape and now he must return to mundane life
Case History
Abse was a doctor and a jew and is also Welsh
This poem is about a patient who is a Nazi and the conflicts that he has with this patient in terms of religion and beliefs.
Patient is deliberately offensive -> ranting- seeking out these situations on purpose
"inferior breed" -> says this in quite a 'factual' way - makes it sound scientific - makes it sound like pedigree dog breeding -> animals
"He could liberals, 'white blacks'" -> (liberals are more open minded) - to equal rights - "'white blacks'" - oxymoron -> saying they may be white but they're different underneath
"Himmler" -> more sadistic members of the Nazis - treating this patient reminds him of these horrendous acts and the Nazis and the kind of things they believed in and what they did to people
"dispensary" -> where the medication is (poisonous) - "deadly nightshape" - he could kill him but instead he "prescribed for him as if he were my brother" - treats him with respect - equality
Abse shows that he won't stoop down to his level - he chooses to be the better person - we can see restraint as you can see there's a dislike between them but he doesn't act on it
Last stanza -> loss of control? loss of power from taking the moral high-ground
Friday, 7 March 2014
Reference Back
nostalgia - looking back on better times
"unsatisfactory" -> disappointing - repetition of formula
"played record after record" -> wasting time - depressing - showing that they would rather remember than have no memory of it at all
"unsatisfactory prime" -> oxymoron - the best part of his life was 'unsatisfactory'
"a huge remembering pre-electric horn" -> he's playing the records on a gramophone (old way - wants it to be raw - like the reality of the memory)
"The flock od notes those antique Negroes blew" -> jazz music - going back to a key point in his past where that kind of music must have been important to him
"lives" on on line and "losses" on the next -> presents juxtapostion between his life then and how it was then
Happy memories reminds him of how his life is now -> his past is taunting him - he obsesses over his regrets - and thinks about how different his life is now than it was in the past
Better to have a short memory because then you wouldn't have to remember how happy you were then as apposed to now -> brings to mind the saying 'better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all'
Friday, 28 February 2014
The Importance of Elsewhere
Freedom from isolation -> Larkin enjoys the loneliness of it.
Makes him feel at home - his added freedom (being in Ireland not England).
"It would be much more serious to refuse" -> certain things he cannot refuse.
"underwrites" -> lonely and different at home - harder to expect anything here.
Need to be able to runaway - Larkin needed to experience something other than home - be a part of life.
"existence" -> he's known in England -> virtually unknown in Ireland.
familiar -> things expected of him in England: "there are my customs and establishments".
"The salt rebuff of speech, insisting so on difference, made me welcome" -> feels like a stranger in Ireland until he's spoken to - friendly.
"Living in England has no such excuse" -> England is home - he knows England well -> Ireland is foreign - exciting.
Stanza 1 -> Larkin is not very adventurous -> likes home comforts -> not used to foreign surroundings.
Stanza 2 -> "The herring-hawker's cry, dwindling went to prove me separate, not unworkable" -> his accent is different -> the place is different but he likes the change. -> it's acceptable/understandable.
Stanza 3 -> "Living in England has no excuse: these are my customs and establishments" -> recognisabilities - work - visiting family.
"Their" -> won't accept it as his own - stranger.
"Elsewhere" -> being anywhere but home - no other place is going to define him.
"Here is elsewhere underwrites my existence" -> cultural identity - concept of 'the other' (another group to compare yourself to) - 'I am this because I am not that'
Fitting in; feeling like an outsider; feeling like an observer not a participant; feeling like you are a glamorous outsider.
Difference between:
-being in Ireland
- being in England
Orientalism - SaÏd
Western vs. Eastern
-Western - Christian - white
-Eastern - Non-Christian - non-white
Makes him feel at home - his added freedom (being in Ireland not England).
"It would be much more serious to refuse" -> certain things he cannot refuse.
"underwrites" -> lonely and different at home - harder to expect anything here.
Need to be able to runaway - Larkin needed to experience something other than home - be a part of life.
"existence" -> he's known in England -> virtually unknown in Ireland.
familiar -> things expected of him in England: "there are my customs and establishments".
"The salt rebuff of speech, insisting so on difference, made me welcome" -> feels like a stranger in Ireland until he's spoken to - friendly.
"Living in England has no such excuse" -> England is home - he knows England well -> Ireland is foreign - exciting.
Stanza 1 -> Larkin is not very adventurous -> likes home comforts -> not used to foreign surroundings.
Stanza 2 -> "The herring-hawker's cry, dwindling went to prove me separate, not unworkable" -> his accent is different -> the place is different but he likes the change. -> it's acceptable/understandable.
Stanza 3 -> "Living in England has no excuse: these are my customs and establishments" -> recognisabilities - work - visiting family.
"Their" -> won't accept it as his own - stranger.
"Elsewhere" -> being anywhere but home - no other place is going to define him.
"Here is elsewhere underwrites my existence" -> cultural identity - concept of 'the other' (another group to compare yourself to) - 'I am this because I am not that'
Fitting in; feeling like an outsider; feeling like an observer not a participant; feeling like you are a glamorous outsider.
Difference between:
-being in Ireland
- being in England
Orientalism - SaÏd
Western vs. Eastern
-Western - Christian - white
-Eastern - Non-Christian - non-white
Nothing to be Said
"Life is slow dying" -> paradox - death happens to everyone - as soon as you're born you're slowly dying.
"benediction" -> blessing
"The day spent hunting pig or holding a garden-party" -> different ways of living their lives - different social classes (upper and lower) - snobbish of Larkin.
Stanza 1 -> a list of very different types of people -> all were born all will die.
Stanza 3 -> ways to pass the time.
"For nations vague as weeds" -> countries appearing out of nowhere spreading like "weed[s]" - not even plants - in an undesirable fashion.
Different cultures doing death differently but in the end we will all die.
"nomad" -> never stay in one place -> constantly moving -> reference to tribes.
"ways of slow dying" -> pessimistic view.
"Hours giving evidence or birth, advance" -> justifying our existence.
"Or birth, advance on death equally slowly" -> paradox -> giving life - yet still dying at the same time
Stanza 1-> "nomads" - tribes
Stanza 2 -> "The day spent hunting pig or holding a garden-party" - contrast between the two social classes -> reference back to "nomad[s]"/tribes.
zeugma - "Hours giving evidence or birth" -> there for comical effect.
Last line: "And saying s to some means nothing; other it leaves nothing to be said" -> optimistic vs pessimistic -> we all know Larkin to be pessimistic.
"benediction" -> blessing
"The day spent hunting pig or holding a garden-party" -> different ways of living their lives - different social classes (upper and lower) - snobbish of Larkin.
Stanza 1 -> a list of very different types of people -> all were born all will die.
Stanza 3 -> ways to pass the time.
"For nations vague as weeds" -> countries appearing out of nowhere spreading like "weed[s]" - not even plants - in an undesirable fashion.
Different cultures doing death differently but in the end we will all die.
"nomad" -> never stay in one place -> constantly moving -> reference to tribes.
"ways of slow dying" -> pessimistic view.
"Hours giving evidence or birth, advance" -> justifying our existence.
"Or birth, advance on death equally slowly" -> paradox -> giving life - yet still dying at the same time
Stanza 1-> "nomads" - tribes
Stanza 2 -> "The day spent hunting pig or holding a garden-party" - contrast between the two social classes -> reference back to "nomad[s]"/tribes.
zeugma - "Hours giving evidence or birth" -> there for comical effect.
Last line: "And saying s to some means nothing; other it leaves nothing to be said" -> optimistic vs pessimistic -> we all know Larkin to be pessimistic.
Wild Oats
'sew your wild oats' -> crazy adventures before settling down.
"English rose" -> classically beautiful/fair
"And her friend in specs I could talk to" -> Larkin could talk to her because he didn't 'like' her/find her attractive in that way - security/not nervous/personality - lusted after "bosomy rose".
"I met beautiful twice" -> doesn't refer to her by her name just as "beautiful" - categorising her - comparing the two friends.
"in my wallet are still two snaps of bosomy rose" -> got something out of it in the end - has pined after her for so long.
"after seven years" -> Lark had had a long term/serious relationship with her "friend in specs".
"gave a ten-guinea ring" -> expensive - got engaged to her - obviously cared for her in some way.
"wrote over four-hundred letters" -> intimate relationship with her friend - meant something to him.
"after about five rehearsals" -> they nearly broke up five times until they finally split up.
"about twenty years ago" -> "bosomy English rose" is still ideal - and he still has pictures of her after 20 years - must have viewed as as the 'perfect girl'.
Larkin cares more about looks than personality -> objectification.
"English rose" -> classically beautiful/fair
"And her friend in specs I could talk to" -> Larkin could talk to her because he didn't 'like' her/find her attractive in that way - security/not nervous/personality - lusted after "bosomy rose".
"I met beautiful twice" -> doesn't refer to her by her name just as "beautiful" - categorising her - comparing the two friends.
"in my wallet are still two snaps of bosomy rose" -> got something out of it in the end - has pined after her for so long.
"after seven years" -> Lark had had a long term/serious relationship with her "friend in specs".
"gave a ten-guinea ring" -> expensive - got engaged to her - obviously cared for her in some way.
"wrote over four-hundred letters" -> intimate relationship with her friend - meant something to him.
"after about five rehearsals" -> they nearly broke up five times until they finally split up.
"about twenty years ago" -> "bosomy English rose" is still ideal - and he still has pictures of her after 20 years - must have viewed as as the 'perfect girl'.
Larkin cares more about looks than personality -> objectification.
Thursday, 27 February 2014
Toads Revisited
"should" -> might not -> emphasises his expectations
"suit" -> could mean two things => paradox
1) it isn't hi scene.
2) suit and tie - related to work -> uniform
"palsied old step-takers" -> old decreed people.
"Hare-eyed clerks with the jitters" - "clerks" => junior bankers - "hare-eyed" => nervous - shaking.
"blurred playground noises" -> children (in the park).
"waxed-fleshed out patients still vague from accidents" -> the park is also where people in recovery go to.
"And characters in long coats deep in the litter basket" -> homeless people scavenge in the park?
"stupid or weak" -> summary of all the types of people in the park.
"Think of being them!" -> Larkin is mortified by even the thought -> time would go by with nothing to do -> monotonous
"Hearing the hours chime" -> monotonous - got nothing else to do but to "hear" time go past.
Repetition of "Think of being them" -> emphasises his point ^.
Stanza 7 - Larkin would have time to think about all of his failures and regrets in his life -> isolation - he fears he wouldn't have anyone to talk to
Stanza 7 - shows how work keeps him socialising and interacting with other people -> a safety net
"Give me your arm, old toad" -> work has become his friend.
"Help me down Cemetery Road" -> last line shows that death is the overall outcome of life -> inevitable -> Larkin would rather work until he died than be a work-dodger.
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