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Showing posts with label Social Struggle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Social Struggle. Show all posts
Monday, 18 April 2011
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
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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