Talking In Bed

 

The title of this poem has many connotations. It could refer to a ramonatic couple or a friendship, an intimate place for private conversation and a place where there are no distractions.

 The main themes of this poem are: human nature, relationships, the presentation of women (how Larkin has presented them) and loneliness.

Here

Realistic or Pessimistic?

 

Larkin's portrayal of the landscape is arguably the predominant themes in this poem – along with a journey (again) and nature.

This poem is about a journey from Sheffield to Hull and he explores the landscape and his surroundings to explain how he feels about certain places. “Too thin and  thistled to be called meadows” – I think Larkin is trying to say that meadows are meant to be something full and soft and gentle but the presence of thistles and that its thin makes them rough and dry – not worthy of being a meadow.

The presentation of nature occasionally offers hope.

 “Fast shadowed wheat fields, running high as hedges”. This simile shows that the wheat fields as stretching high and that they are vast and tower high.

“The piled gold clouds, the shining gull-marked mud”. – I really like this line from the poem as it presents an amazing image in the reader’s head (well mine anyway) and the imagery behind this is incredible.

Rhyme Scheme:

1^st Stanza: ABAB CDDC

2^nd Stanza: ABBA CDCD

3^rd Stanza: ABAB CDDC

4^th Stanza: ABBA CDCD

Rhymes Used:

Half-Rhyme – “stands” and “ascends”

Eye-Rhyme – tough and enough – words that look like they should rhyme

Feminine Rhyme – “cluster” and “water”

There are a few uses of enjambment and caesuras in order to make the poem flow and stop in places that Larkin feels will put emphasis on specific parts of the poem.

The final stanza presents the existence of freedom – “unfenced existence” but then contradicits that by saying that its “out of reach” – suggesting that he’s never going to get it.

The Whitsun Weddings

In this poem Larkin is exterior from what he sees and he is witnessing this as he is travelling on a train. He presents oxymorons in this poem such as "happy funeral" in order to enable the reader to have to think about the meaning behind it and explore the different interpretations (it could mean a wonderful end of an era).

Larkin projects the image of cheapness when he says he sees girls wearing "nylon gloves". This implies that these people are not elegant, not classy, and not elite as nylon is synthetic and fake and by him saying they're wearing "parodies of fashion" further instils this vision of a lower class. There is an element of unpleasantness as he's describing these people at the weddings he sees which lead me to believe that he is a snob looking down on these people and he's mocking them.

By describing the mothers as "loud and fat" makes us see Larkin as very straight forward and blatantly harsh, but makes the things he says about the fathers having "broad belts under their suits and seamy foreheads" slightly harder to read into. This to me indicates a hint of sexism.

The landscape he describes when travelling through the countryside are much industrialised: "approached with achres of dismantled cars", which indicates the fact that these weddings are taking place where you definitely wouldn't want to be.

The themes present in this poem are; nature/landscapes, society and a journey. In my opinion, the journey is the most important theme of this poem and is the most potent in terms of be able to interpret the poem. It helps if you imagine what h's describing and try to picture it yourself and then think of how you would feel about it.

The ending represent the cycles of nature and also provides hope but can also be seen as things coming to an end as the journey as to end at some point.