Larkin poetry

• early 1955 pentecostal reference
• I was late- personal first stanza and larkins observations on a train journey
• all types of life are present- cinematic
• industrial froth- consumption, a new era
• and went on reading- Larkin as the outsider
• irresolutely- parodies of fashion, awkward and he is detacthed
• ABAB CDE CDE RHYME SCHEME
• nylon gloves- tell us of the time
• mothers loud and fat- larkins cynical tone towards women- sensory imagery - intices the reader
• inference
• secret like a happy funeral - loosing a child to marriage
• virgins
• Larkins attitude towards marriage- many lovers, no marrriages
• ordinary way of life, a commitment             arrow shower- cupids or death?
• becoming rain- used to be sunny- a negativity surrounded the event he has just witnessed
• only thing he shares with these people are london
• context- larkins agnostic tendencies, monica jones and marriage, his mother and father. 

• ought to be- what love should be like
• Lying- could mean literally lying to each other- pain of lobve
• - LEXICAL POLYSEMY
• emblem of two people- symbolic. Together forever. 
• time passes unnoticely for older couples, they are wishing their lives away. 
• dark towns- and nature- incomplete unrested wind- nature contrasted with people- lying quietly but the world moves on always
• nature will not wait for a couple who are falling out of love with eachother
• horizoon- associated with affinity, knowledge and wisdom
• isolation- together but so alone
• us is personal- perhaps referring to one of his relationships- monica jones who he broke off an engagment with- she was still by his bedside when he died aged 63n a03
• parodox of true and kind- we can say things that are untrue but not unkind, and things that are true but kind
• declarative , reflective, heartfelt mood and tone
• broken rhyme scheme portrays absence of continued love 

Dockery is a year below larkin at oxford. 

• death-suited, a funeral?
• family business
• these incidents last might- university antics
• still half-tight= drunk
• door where i used to live- locked, cannot go back to the past
• canal and clouds and colleges, pessimistic alliteration
• cartwright who was killed- died in WW2 reference
• awful pie- larkins simplistic tone
• parting lines- separates ways in life
• unhindered mooon- nature remains the same for everyone- never changing
• no son, no wife- things larkin does not mind not having
• sarcastic tone in second last stanza
• we- collective pronoun
• 1950s- marriage is forced- conditioned by society - post-war society
• we all die

• title celebrate sthe arrival of the dawn- light of day
• title is ironic
• A.N wilson- a song of the dawn reference
• self-depricating humour- get half-drunk at nihgt
• larkin wakes up at 4am and things about life
• line nine has fewer syllables in each stanze- focuses on main subject
• four stanzas focus on death and one focuses on our distractions from it
• "the sky is white as clay" no sun = death
• regular rhyme scheme but pentameter not used whole way- ordely life never in control
• apprehnsive , reflective and humourous tones throughout
• extinction- anstract noun used to shock reader- emptiness within our heads
• repeated negatives2 "not"
• religion used to try- a facade
• Larkin does not have the religious faith that seems to comfort everyone else
• created to pretend we never die- organised religion
• personification of death AND stands plain as a wardrobe- ordinary things- postmen- life goes on

britain- cultural shift in 1960s- birth control came out- he is 45 at this point

• in first stanza, larkin recognises the change in this generation- women have more reproductive freedom
• 1967 - larkin was working in university libarary, 
• he's ******* her- assumptions from larkin
• everyone old has dreamed of- they never had the same freedoms
• half rhyme is used- 
• outdated combine harvester- going down the long slide- envious attitude 
• italics- suggest and separate what larkin was thinking about at this moment
• hell and that- dismissive language
• free bloody birds- no worries- larkin  was deeply anxious 
• church going link 
• sun comprehending glass- the truth nothing, noweher, endless, three negatives in a row. the unknown- believe larkin is unware of hat life has instore for him 

most likely about Larkins grandmother

• cynical and critical of the elderly but many argue it is humourous
• a list of questions
• he does not know the answer- larkins poetry never does
• shock effect for reader
• at death you break up- startling and disrespectful to specfy this falling apart- dehumanising
• million petalled flower of being here- life is fantastic with endless possibilities
• you were once not in the world
• reflecitve third stanza and intricate rhyme scheme and indentation
• deep loss restored- memeory loss
• you almost become a child again
• where they live- suggesting it wil never happen to him- larkin feared death greatly
• trying to be here- wishing they were young again
• alp- top of the mountain- reached the destination - postive light
• return to questions - we shall find out- universal - we all die 

• sun gives us all we need
• as a lion- animalistic- we view it in different ways
• usually nature gives a postive vibe to a poem 
• how still you stand- personification 
• single, stalkless flower- sibilance- soothing sibilance used
• religious tone- as if the sun is our god
• directly addresses the sun
• gold- worthy
• you exist openly - we treat it poorly - ozone  layer
• an open hand for humans
• you give forever- until we die - so signifigant

read out at the funeral of these men

very different from larkins usual anti- religious tone

• mine disaster in 1969.metaphor as shadows
• early in the day
• saved the eggs- these men were kind and gentle
• past tense
• elegy
• concludes with a single line set apart 
• "God-s house in comfort" - unlike larkin
• rumours that the wives had seen these men as ghosts
• ominous tone and optimistic imagery of coin and sun- light
• love and death themes
• italics to separate voices
• one showing the eggs unbroken- they did not deserve this 
• tremour- explosion itself is understated to make sure it is not insensitive