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.
Self's The Man
This poem shows Larkin's selfishness and his views on being single as apposed to being married like Arnold. This poem compares Larkin's opinions on both being single and in a relationship.
Arnold -> selfless -> married
"stop her getting away" -> didn't want her to marry anyone else
"no she's there all day" -> never get any alone time ->claustrophobic
Two extremes - shows that there needs to be a balance in between the two (single and married).
There is repetition of: "Oh, no one can deny" -> sarcasm and "And"->monotonous - never-ending tasks she leaves for him/asks him to do.
In this poem it is very clear that Larkin has a cynical view of marriage.
Rhyming couplets link to comparison between the pair ->the marriage itself?
"It's Put a screw in this wall" - painting women as nagging and constantly reliant on a man ->negative view -> sexist
"Van" -> insanity? -> marriage drives people crazy but he then doubts himself with a pause and "or I suppose I can" -> as in maybe he could be open to settling down.
Larkin starts to backtrack and starts to think that maybe Arnold isn't as selfless as he first thought. Their lives are in some respect the same? "he was out for his own ends not just pleasing his friends" -> he is out for himself like everyone else.
Larkin comes to the conclusion that all decisions are selfish -> "he and I are the same" (but he's bias).
Arnold -> selfless -> married
"stop her getting away" -> didn't want her to marry anyone else
"no she's there all day" -> never get any alone time ->claustrophobic
Two extremes - shows that there needs to be a balance in between the two (single and married).
There is repetition of: "Oh, no one can deny" -> sarcasm and "And"->monotonous - never-ending tasks she leaves for him/asks him to do.
In this poem it is very clear that Larkin has a cynical view of marriage.
Rhyming couplets link to comparison between the pair ->the marriage itself?
"It's Put a screw in this wall" - painting women as nagging and constantly reliant on a man ->negative view -> sexist
"Van" -> insanity? -> marriage drives people crazy but he then doubts himself with a pause and "or I suppose I can" -> as in maybe he could be open to settling down.
Larkin starts to backtrack and starts to think that maybe Arnold isn't as selfless as he first thought. Their lives are in some respect the same? "he was out for his own ends not just pleasing his friends" -> he is out for himself like everyone else.
Larkin comes to the conclusion that all decisions are selfish -> "he and I are the same" (but he's bias).
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