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Showing posts with label Poetry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Poetry. Show all posts
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
Philip Larkin - Questions
Larkin confines complexity within the boundaries of a typically structured poem that follows an ABBAB pattern. In the context of the sixties he seems to be portraying the rigidity of society up until then and how sinful ideas were locked up; either physically or masked by implicit innuendo, "The Chatterly ban and The Beatles firt LP", which are both expressions of promiscuity. Larkin thus seems to be mirroring this idea of containement and creating a puzzle of a poem that on the surface appears clean but beyond shows its true meaning.
The second stanza and the third imply the peak and then calm of sexual activity, even to the blunt point of suggesting orgasm as the second stanza begins with the word "Up". "A sort of bargaining, a wrangle for a ring" may describe the somewhat wholesome idea of marriage before sex in juxtaposition with the idea of both prostitution and the wrangle for the female form. "A quite unlosable game" Larkin suggests sexual paralysis, a boredom with sex almsost as it becomes so readily available. The concluding stanza continues with this mood with "so life was never better" an overtly sarcastic statement that describes the untranslated "Annus Mirabilis" with connotations of misery but which actually translates to joy, in a way that shows Larkin's ability to express his frank and negative opinion without even having to state it - facilitating a rare use of allusion to make the point for him.
2. How can you compare "An Arundel Tomb" with "Talking in Bed"?
Isolation is the main point of comparison between these two poems, namely the isolation someone may feel whilst in the presence of another. In "An Arundel Tomb" a couple lay for eternity in an "effigy" portraying a "blurred" image of love, "A sculptor's sweet commissioned grace" and a "blazon" of their relationship. This is similar to the "emblem" Larkin speaks of in "talking in Bed" whereby he states that when in bed with someone you are recreating "an emblem of two people being honest". This honesty seems distorted in "An Arundel Tomb", specifically by the repetition of the pun "lie" in reference to dishonesty rather than the horizontal position. Indeed the phrase "baroque" suggests some showy gesture of affection and an embellishment of the true. The Earl seems almost to surrender to the inevitable display of love, removing his "left hand gauntlet" from his hand in order to hold hers.
"Talking in Bed" mirrors this idea of embellishment, "A unique distance from isolation" though meaningless words and art may be used you are always ultimately left alone - distanced from your lover (or indeed anyone) by your own being. Almost entrapment, lying with someone merely exaggerates this isolation as whilst words may be "not untrue and not unkind" the use of the "un" prefix suggests an absence of the word in its entirity.
Both entrapment and absence occur in "An Arundel Tomb" however it is far more literal, being entrapped by "stone", "stiffened" and "rigid". Larkin also uses the prefix "un" to describe the deciet within this stoney fidelity. Whilst our "almost instict is almost true" there again lay an absence of honest and unembellished love.
The poems differences occur in their form. "Talking in Bed" is an autobiographical account whilst "An Arundel Tomb" is a more descriptive view of something. The former therefore may give us more insight into LArkin's lititary persona; a complex one that seems unable to commit to positivity, always masking it with a negative, i.e. "un", to indirectly describe it. In this way he seems to describe his own struggle in finding the words to say when within a relationship and the incompletion he feels.
3. What is wrong with labelling Larkin as a pessimist?
Though Larkin appears a pessimist, particularly in "This Be The Verse", he is implicitly ironic and his frankness shows an almost amusing account of the truth in its barest form. For example, "They fuck you up your mum and dad" is the most memorable and shocking introduction to a poem this side of the 20th century and almost subconciously one laughs at his explicit tone. However, as seen in "Annus Mirabilis" the almost disregarding way n which he enters the poem signposts a far more implicit meaning that harnesses an element of truth.
Larkin shows a desire in both "Talking in Bed" and "An Arundel Tomb" to find positivity stating that words are "not untrue and not unkind", however he seems unwilling to admit or commit to something he doesn't wholly believe in or believe is present. He seems to deliver truth to the reader and though he may never find completion he can but indirectly seek it as he shows he does throughout his work.
Philip Larkin - Annus Mirabilis
Sexual intercourse began
In nineteen sixty-three
(which was rather late for me) -
Between the end of the "Chatterley" ban
And the Beatles' first LP.
Up to then there'd only been
A sort of bargaining,
A wrangle for the ring,
A shame that started at sixteen
And spread to everything.
Then all at once the quarrel sank:
Everyone felt the same,
And every life became
A brilliant breaking of the bank,
A quite unlosable game.
So life was never better than
In nineteen sixty-three
(Though just too late for me) -
Between the end of the "Chatterley" ban
And the Beatles' first LP.
Notes:
- The title of the poem is latin for "year of wonder" however without translation the title may suggest sexual misery.
- This poem contains many allusions to both extrinsically and intrinsically promiscuous art. The first is Lady Chatterley's Lover which was the first book to perpetuially use the word fuck and descirbe intimate sexual scenes. It therefore was banned up until the late 60's expressing how prohibiton of material containing sexual references led to a youth whom were forced to suppress sexual emotion or indeed go underground with it. The second is "The Beatles first LP" which contains questionable lyrics "Please Please Me" which could connote a plea for oral sex. This questionability is further portrayed in how there are 2 distinct ways of reading the poem, either inplicitly and thus sexually or literally and thus more wholesome. This implicit nature shows how the poem is somewhat of a puzzle: just as sex for such a youth would have been.
- The second stanza speaks of life previously "a wrangle for a ring" portraying the social rule of no sex before marriage and presents how sex before marriage should be cast in "A shame that started at 16". As previously detailed this stanza too has an implicit reading with "A sort of bargaining" even going as far as to suggest the buying and selling of prostitution. There appears to be a form of excitement involved with this "bargaining" and "wrangle". One could also be as crude to note how the first word in the stanza is "up" ...etcetc.
- The third stanza brings with it a definite change in tone, further displayed by the word "sank". There appears a lull "a quite unlosable game" suggesting that with this sexual revolution displayed in the 2nd stanza came a peak (no doubt the height of sexual excitement) and then a plummet into post-coital calm or even depression as sex loses all the challenges displayed in the previous stanza. Women portrated to succomb "a brilliant breaking of the bank" (spreading of legs?). This quotation could also refer to a sort of moral bankrupcy that comes with such a revolution, moving away from the wholesome world of the 50's. The idea that "everyone felt the same" connotes some form of emotional numbing and sexual paralysis.
- Structurally the poem maintains a strict ABBAB pattern which is in complete contrast to the content. Again Larkin using structure as a polite way of wrapping lude content.
In nineteen sixty-three
(which was rather late for me) -
Between the end of the "Chatterley" ban
And the Beatles' first LP.
Up to then there'd only been
A sort of bargaining,
A wrangle for the ring,
A shame that started at sixteen
And spread to everything.
Then all at once the quarrel sank:
Everyone felt the same,
And every life became
A brilliant breaking of the bank,
A quite unlosable game.
So life was never better than
In nineteen sixty-three
(Though just too late for me) -
Between the end of the "Chatterley" ban
And the Beatles' first LP.
Notes:
- The title of the poem is latin for "year of wonder" however without translation the title may suggest sexual misery.
- This poem contains many allusions to both extrinsically and intrinsically promiscuous art. The first is Lady Chatterley's Lover which was the first book to perpetuially use the word fuck and descirbe intimate sexual scenes. It therefore was banned up until the late 60's expressing how prohibiton of material containing sexual references led to a youth whom were forced to suppress sexual emotion or indeed go underground with it. The second is "The Beatles first LP" which contains questionable lyrics "Please Please Me" which could connote a plea for oral sex. This questionability is further portrayed in how there are 2 distinct ways of reading the poem, either inplicitly and thus sexually or literally and thus more wholesome. This implicit nature shows how the poem is somewhat of a puzzle: just as sex for such a youth would have been.
- The second stanza speaks of life previously "a wrangle for a ring" portraying the social rule of no sex before marriage and presents how sex before marriage should be cast in "A shame that started at 16". As previously detailed this stanza too has an implicit reading with "A sort of bargaining" even going as far as to suggest the buying and selling of prostitution. There appears to be a form of excitement involved with this "bargaining" and "wrangle". One could also be as crude to note how the first word in the stanza is "up" ...etcetc.
- The third stanza brings with it a definite change in tone, further displayed by the word "sank". There appears a lull "a quite unlosable game" suggesting that with this sexual revolution displayed in the 2nd stanza came a peak (no doubt the height of sexual excitement) and then a plummet into post-coital calm or even depression as sex loses all the challenges displayed in the previous stanza. Women portrated to succomb "a brilliant breaking of the bank" (spreading of legs?). This quotation could also refer to a sort of moral bankrupcy that comes with such a revolution, moving away from the wholesome world of the 50's. The idea that "everyone felt the same" connotes some form of emotional numbing and sexual paralysis.
- Structurally the poem maintains a strict ABBAB pattern which is in complete contrast to the content. Again Larkin using structure as a polite way of wrapping lude content.
Philip Larkin - This Be The Verse
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another's throats.
Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don't have any kids yourself.
Notes:
- The title "This Be The Verse" has almost a biblical element to it suggesting Larkin is delivering a lesson. Initially quite formal tone.
- This formality is completely undermined by the first line "They fuck your up your mum and dad". Not only is the use of an explicitive shocking but the informality of "mum and dad" suggests an implied child reader. The simplistic structure of the poem throughout further suggests this as it resembles a nursery rhyme. Inital reactions to the first line is surprisingly usually laughter which suggests that there is an element of silliness to Larkin's work. Though, as portrayed by the title, his poems are extrinsically serious and depressing he expresses that there may indeed be a distance between him and the self he portrays on the page.
- Larkin provides some irony with his choice of language and words for example, how everything up to "extra" is monosyllabic until "extra" which indeed has an extra syllable. Also he uses the word "half" exactly halfway through the poem.
- The content of the poem is focused around a very misanthropical perspective with misery being handed on from generation to generation "man hands on misery to man" and in particular the second stanza suggests that we are the identity of our parents with each generation worsening, "but they were fucked up in their turn". The use of words such as "fuck" and "fill" throughout the poem provides a literal view of reproduction suggesting that at the point of conception you're already tarnished by the label of human. Larkin does however provide a solution with, "Get out as early as you can" which in the literal sense would prevent conception in the first place.
- The final stanza distorts the tone back to the serious connotation of the title as the language "deepens" so does the content and indeed the poem. The phrase "deepens like a coastal shelf" suggests a slow weathering of the human condition. An image of beauty thats being tarnished by external influence such as the weather or the sea. Furthermore coastal shelves are supposedly a place of fertility.
- The context in which the poem is written is within the 1970's baby boom where, after the 60's everyone had an ideology of changing the world - women having careers as well as families for example. Larkin seems to step in to this ideology and crushes such a dream to individualise one self by stating that as such an ideology grows so does misery.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another's throats.
Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don't have any kids yourself.
Notes:
- The title "This Be The Verse" has almost a biblical element to it suggesting Larkin is delivering a lesson. Initially quite formal tone.
- This formality is completely undermined by the first line "They fuck your up your mum and dad". Not only is the use of an explicitive shocking but the informality of "mum and dad" suggests an implied child reader. The simplistic structure of the poem throughout further suggests this as it resembles a nursery rhyme. Inital reactions to the first line is surprisingly usually laughter which suggests that there is an element of silliness to Larkin's work. Though, as portrayed by the title, his poems are extrinsically serious and depressing he expresses that there may indeed be a distance between him and the self he portrays on the page.
- Larkin provides some irony with his choice of language and words for example, how everything up to "extra" is monosyllabic until "extra" which indeed has an extra syllable. Also he uses the word "half" exactly halfway through the poem.
- The content of the poem is focused around a very misanthropical perspective with misery being handed on from generation to generation "man hands on misery to man" and in particular the second stanza suggests that we are the identity of our parents with each generation worsening, "but they were fucked up in their turn". The use of words such as "fuck" and "fill" throughout the poem provides a literal view of reproduction suggesting that at the point of conception you're already tarnished by the label of human. Larkin does however provide a solution with, "Get out as early as you can" which in the literal sense would prevent conception in the first place.
- The final stanza distorts the tone back to the serious connotation of the title as the language "deepens" so does the content and indeed the poem. The phrase "deepens like a coastal shelf" suggests a slow weathering of the human condition. An image of beauty thats being tarnished by external influence such as the weather or the sea. Furthermore coastal shelves are supposedly a place of fertility.
- The context in which the poem is written is within the 1970's baby boom where, after the 60's everyone had an ideology of changing the world - women having careers as well as families for example. Larkin seems to step in to this ideology and crushes such a dream to individualise one self by stating that as such an ideology grows so does misery.
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