TALKING IN BED (Poem) By Philip Larkin

Talking in bed isn't the love poem that you would initially expect it to be, it is a poem that; although it is about love and relationships, it is about the love and relationships between older people who have been married a long time. They are not newly weds, and they are not young people. This is a poem, more about enduring love rather than falling into it.

Right from the beginning, Larkin hints that this is not a poem about the younger generation. The attitude of the persona does not suggests the same enthusiasm and energy that you would expect in a young couple in a romantic relationship. In the second line of the first stanza, Larkin describes how the notion of the two people 'lying together there goes back so far'. This is the first concrete evidence for the 'older couple'.

In the second stanza, he talks about how inside the room there is nothing but silence, but the lack of communication isn't written as to make it appear awkward, which would suggest that these people do still love each other very much, but they have reached the stage where they see very little need to speak to each other, they all ready know each other too well. another idea is that this suggests that Talking in bed is a poem about falling out of love, ending something that was once passionate and alive. I don't think that this is the reason the couple are not talking. I think if this were the case, Larkin would have made this silence sound harsh and awkward. Also we have seen in many of Larkin's other poems, that silence is precious to him and he thinks highly of it.

It is interesting that before we are even half way through the poem, Larkin leads us out of the room with the couple and into the outside world, with the 'winds incomplete unrest' and the 'dark towns' that 'heap up on the horizon'. This contrast between sweet silence and 'incomplete unrest' shows us just how peaceful and beautiful the relationship is between the couple who are lying together, side by side in bed. Also when the persona describes how nothing outside cares for the people inside, this shows us that they are definitely happy together, because in their silent bedroom, they have something that the outside work lacks; care for one another.

Linking back to the idea of this being a poem about falling out of love, there is a small amount of evidence in the fourth stanza to support this. the persona describes 'It becomes still more difficult to find / words at once true and kind'. This could hint at a deteriorating relationship, but it could also merely be a case of them not being able to find anything to say that hasn't already been said. But it is the last two lines together that really makes the biggest and hardest suggestions about relationships.

'Words at once true and kind / or not untrue and not unkind'. At the beginning of a relationship  it is really easy to find things to say that are both 100% true and 100% kind. You are just getting to know each other,  and may not know the full story. Likelihood is that you'll know the majority of the other person's life story, but even husband and wife keep things from each other. I feel what Larkin is trying to say here, is that the older we get, the more we find our about are spouse and the harder it gets to find things that are both 100% true and kind. Its just never going to happen.

AMBULANCES (Poem) By Philip Larkin

At first glance, Ambulances seems to be a poem very different to Larkin's other works, however once you get into the actual words of the poem and the meanings behind these words, it becomes quite clear that this poem follows the same themes and thoughts as most of Larkin's other poems. I also found this poem a little odd at first as the only people who really tend to talk about ambulances are young children.  But of course, by now, we know that Larkin is one for talking about the taboo subjects and bringing up the tender topics of conversation.

Right from the opening phrase, 'closed like confessionals' we are being fed a different view of Ambulances and what their purpose is in our society. I think that this phrase really opens the poem well by stressing the importance of ambulances. The first parallel I made between ambulances and confessionals is that they both carry someone who is believed to be able to save you, in an ambulance, you find a paramedic who will try and offer physical salvation. They will try their hardest to save you from whatever ailment or injury you are suffering with, they will not stop until they are sure you are safe. Equally, in a confessional, you will find a priest, whom catholics believe can forgive you of your sins and offer you spiritual salvation. Both of these 'boxes' are places where life is tried to be saved and death, whether it be spiritual or physical, is push away and stopped before it claims the person seeking help.

I also really like the metaphor of the thread that Larkin uses to describe how the ambulance works. I think that this can be taken in two different ways. The first being that Larkin is referring to the idea of someone's life 'hanging by a thread'. The thought of being on the very edge of death and needing an ambulance to stop death from claiming you. This idea is also continued later on in the poem when he talks about the ties of life beginning to loosen, this idea fascinates me and I'll come onto that shortly. The second way that this 'thread' metaphor can be taken is much more positive and makes for an overall, more pleasant read of this dim poem. I think that the idea of the ambulance as it 'thread / loud noons of cities', is saying that slowly but surely, ambulances weave and 'thread' their way through the cities, stitching it back together and making things better for the people that live there. Sewing up to wounds in the towns and cities and fixing society. Personally, I like to think of the second one myself, however this is Larkin and this is one of his ambiguous thoughts that he leave to us to decide what we'll make of it.

Finally for the first stanza, the last line of the stanza is very real and I think what Larkin/Larkin's persona is trying to tell us is that as 'all streets in time are visited' by and ambulance, so do death come to us all, no matter how hard we try to avoid it.

After this first stanza, we move into the middle section of the poem which focuses of looking at the lives of the ordinary people in the city who are having to witness the ambulance and its works, and how they are reacting to this. The description of the 'children strewn on the steps or road' suggests that they have been affected by this as much as the patient. Once the ambulance drives away, they are thrown back into their everyday lives, trying not to remember the tram they have just witnessed. Even if it is somebody you do not know, seeing someone so ill they have to call for an ambulance is bound to leave an impression. The trauma of the incident is 'strewn' across the surrounding streets and the people with it.

Larkin talks about 'women coming from the shops' and this just reminds be of the natural instinct that humans have, we are drawn to drama. If something unusual or exciting happens, we want to be there and be a part of it. Naturally we want to see things for ourselves and not settle for a secondhand account of what happened. But then this liveliness of the people and the energy they show in wanting to see whats going on is juxtaposed with a 'wild white face'. White or pale faces are usually associated with people who are ill and/or have died. Is this the 'wild white face' of the person being treated, or is it the face/s of the people watching, being saddened and shocked by what they are seeing.

Someone I know suggested that 'the red stretcher-blankets' could represent the red carpet laid out for someone special. Almost like the ambulance is welcoming in each and every patient as a unique and special individual who needs tailored treatment, and in someways i feel that this welcomes us into the back of the ambulance with the patient. The last three stanzas of the poem are really quite ambiguous. They could be interpreted as a description of either the patient or the onlookers, however personally, I feel that at this point the narrative and the persona have travelled into the back of the ambulance with the paramedics and the patient and has moved onto the thoughts and the effect of what is happening to the patient themselves.

'A sense of the solving emptiness'. To solve something, is to find an answer to it. I think that here Larkin is revealing to us what death is. Its a solution, and answer to all of lives problems. For here onwards, death becomes a very clear and obvious thought in the persona's mind. Especially when Larkin writes; 'the unique random blend / Of families and fashions, there / At last begin to loosen'. This links into the point I made earlier about life hanging by a thread. When you get right to the point when your life hangs in the balance and you are inches from death, all that ties you to this life becomes of little values to you and those ties 'at last begin to loosen' you come to the point of realising that you have reached that 'sense of solving emptiness'. Family, friends, pets, memories, hobbies; none of that matters anymore because you have finally reached the ultimate answer to all of life's problems and sufferings: Death.

So as I said at the beginning, Ambulances seems a very different poem to what we are used to for Larkin, but once you get past the choice of topic, you can see that this is indeed a very deeply thoughtful and philosophical poem, just like all of his others.

DOCKERY AND SON (poem) by Philip Larkin

Dockery and Son, is one of Phillip Larkin's poems which focuses on the idea of having children and it also shares many of the themes that appear in Self's the Man. In this poem, Larkin's persona discusses whether or not children are a good thing or not and whether they are beneficial to a man's image.

Initially, the first stanza, Larkin leads you to believe that the poem is just about reminiscing about his (or his persona's) time at Oxford University and the friends he made while he was there. And throughout the first stanza, this is mainly what he his doing. He has returned to Oxford and is talking to the Dean, who mentions that the son of one of his old university friends is now studying at the university and this gets him thinking about the choices he made or didn't make throughout his life leading unto this point. There is little more to say about this stanza.

Stanza two is where things really start to get interesting. He catches his train, 'ignored' and then begins to think about what the dean had said about Dockery's son being at the university and he also begins to have thoughts about his own choice to not have children. "Did he get his son // at nineteen, twenty?" suggests to us that he is shocked that his friend had a child so young and it also gives us the idea that maybe the persona did know his friend as well as he thought he did. The notion that Dockery had his son so young tells us quite clearly that this is what he wanted from the start. You would have to be certain that you definitely wanted children to make the conscious choice to have kids so early on in life. At this point in the poem, it is clear that Larkin is beginning to emphasis the importance of life choice and how important it is to take them seriously.

I really like the way that he describes life choices 'like sand-clouds, thick and close'. It really does do justice to the way that these choices seem to be around us. Before you get to them, you can see really clearly what the choice is and when you're going to make it, and  sometimes you can even see if there's going to be a better way around it, like you can see a sand cloud from miles and miles away in the distance. However once you are inside a sand cloud, it is difficult to get any clarity of how to get out, how big the situation is or what that answer will be. It can be confusing and difficult to know what to do, also sand-clouds always seem off in the distance until you are inside one. Equally, life choice are always a lot closer than you think that are. This links into the epiphany that Larkin has towards the end of the poem. He seems to come to the realization that if you're not careful, life will just pass by you and 'whether or not we use it, it goes'. What Larkin is say here, is that even if we don't consciously make a life choice at all, time and life isn't going to wait around for us to catch up. Life keeps on going whether we like it or not, coming ultimately to 'the end of age' which we know is a euphemism for death.

I believe that very little of this poem is about Dockery and his son, but more about the epiphany that this man and his son unknowingly ignite within Larkin's poetic persona.

HERE (poem) by Philip Larkin

Here is of Larkin's more ambiguous poems and is also another poem which is based around a journey which allows the persona to think and eventually come to the point of having an epiphany. I think the main message of this poem that Larkin tries to convey, is the idea that silence isn't always a bad thing, that it can allow you to think and be peaceful for as long as you want with out being disturbed. He also presents a clear difference between the rural and urban environments.

Throughout the poem, the pace changes and movement it presented in a number of ways. Starting off fast and jolting and slowly becoming calmer, softer and more peaceful towards the end.  In the first stanza, words like 'swerving' are repeated a lot to give the impression of the fast, sharp movements of a train. Always swerving and bending in accordance with the track and the landscape. 'Halt' also suggests a sudden stop that wasn't expected. Although Larkin may not have intended it to be used in this context (Larkin is probably writing about halts as in small railway stations), it still helps to create a sense of fast movement which helps set the atmosphere for the rest of the poem. As the poem progresses the number of dynamic verbs that Larkin uses becomes less and less until the final stanza when there are non of these and we the persona has reached complete and utter stasis.

I find it really interesting how Larkin has used mechanical objects to emphasise the eternal movement that you find in towns and cities. 'Electric mixers, toasters, washers, driers - ' all work because they move in some form or another. I think that here, Larkin is trying to tell us that we have become so dependent on moving constantly, and forgetting to take a moment of peace, that we have now created inventions that move for us when we ca't do everything at once.

Finally when you get to the last stanza, the repetition of 'standing', 'here', 'ends' tells us that the persona is no longer moving on the train and is now stood still and still in thought.  The poem starts off reflecting the pace of a train, then the pace of people and then slows to complete stillness.

One element that is clear throughout the entire poem is the thought that the persona that Larkin writes in has very different opinions of rural and urban environments. When describing urban 'man made' places, he uses words like 'terminate', 'fishy-smelling', 'grim' and 'the slave museum'.  He is picking out all the negatives about what this place has become since it has been industrialised. This is incredibly different to the choice of words Larkin uses when talking about the countryside and the seafront at the end of the poem. 'fenced', 'flower', 'quicken' are all words that are used to tell us about this world away from the grisly horror that man has created with his own hands. This is quite clearly very different approaches to two very different places and it is clear which of the two worlds he prefers to dwell in. (mentally as well as possibly physically? Just a thought). The fact that he makes a conscious effort to separate these two places, reiterates to us how important the rural places are for Larkin's persona, and considering the number of times that this same theme appears in his other poems, possibly Larkin himself. 'And beyond it's mortgage half-built edges', suggests the idea of these two worlds being separate and having to actually work and take a step to get from one place to another. The actual description of the edges of town make it sound almost like a prison or something equally as impenetrable, trapping the 'cut-price crowds' and the 'grim head-scarved wives' inside the town, unable to leave and find the silence and the peace that Larking lets us experience through the persona.

Staying on the topic of this rural paradise that Larkin creates for his audience/readers, I find his interpretation of silence fascinating. Normally silence and loneliness carry the connotations isolation, negativity and friendlessness, however Larkin turns this completely on it's head and presents silence as something that should be welcomed and even strives for. He talks about the small quiet villages where 'loneliness clarifies' and living in a small village myself, I can completely understand and agree with what Larkin is saying here. He is trying to convey the idea that through silence, you can think properly without the whole world invading on your mind, and everything that you've been trying to get straight in your head becomes clear because the air is clear of all the busy fumes and the negative air of the towns. Larkin's collection 'The Whitsun Weddings' from which this poem was taken, was published in 1964 when there was a lot of industry in the town and cities due to the coal mining so the air would not have been as clean as it is now. This could contribute to the foulness to urban places that Larkin presents here.

In the last stanza silence is not the only thing that Larkin puts a positive spin on. He talks about weeds and neglected waters, as well as unnoticed weeds. These would normally also be negative, people aren't exactly the biggest fan of weeds and the first thing we do is pull them out if we find the in the garden. However I believe what Larkin is trying to tell us here, is that when we take time out to be quiet and alone for a little while, things that we never knew we were capable of, or hidden characteristics that had been suppressed by the urban oppression, are able to flower within you and sometimes, these can scare us because we don't know whats happening and we destroy them or pull them out of us like weeds, but I think that Larkin is saying that if we let them mature and develop, then they can 'flower' into something beautiful. Equally, being alone for a while, can encourage us to tend to and nurture the parts of us that we have neglected and let die away.

Silence is good, it opens opportunities to really listen to our own thoughts, and to take care of ourselves from the inside as well as out.

THE WHITSUN WEDDINGS (Poem) by Philip Larkin

The Whitsun Weddings is one of Phillip Larkin's longer poems and the themes in it seem to stray a little from the rest of his usual work.

Through the course of this poem, Larkin presents the idea of a journey in which the persona is travelling alone and, throughout the course of his trip, he comes to a realisation; an epiphany, about life and, in particular, marriage. As the title suggests, the poem is set during the Whitsun weekend, which was a popular time to get married due to the weather, and the long weekend among other various reasons. I refer to the main voice in this poem as the persona because although the poem was inspired by a train journey of Larkin himself, he may not share the views and opinions of the voice he writes with.

I found This poem quite slow paced and almost thoughtful in the speed that the poem moves at. This feeling is created by words such as slow, floating, approach. All of these give the impression of slower movement. Although we know that the persona is on a train, which is fast moving, we could take these words to mean that he is moving slower than he was previously. "All sense of being in a hurry gone" tells us that previous to us meeting him on the train, the person telling the story was living a hectic life, maybe had a busy job and now finally has had the chance to slow himself down a little and give himself time to think. Once your on a train, there's nothing you can do other than sit back and enjoy the journey. At the end of the poem, we see the benefits of having this time to think and observe.

The poem is clearly split into a number of sections, structured to reflect the thought process of the persona. The first two stanzas are uniform and neat, both ending in a full stop. This I believe is the first of the different sections. Here he merely describes what is around him and what his previous circumstances have been - "I was late getting away". I find it fascinating how Larkin has managed to describe the heat and the hot weather through so many of the different senses. Initially he uses touch to describe the physical heat of the cushions, but after that he focuses on how the heat is affecting his other senses, such as his sight and how he cannot see properly for the 'blinding windscreens'. Or how all the different aromas are changed and enhanced by the heat of the sun. I must say that the smell of a fish-dock in the warm weather is not an appealing one, neither is the 'displaced reek of buttoned carriage-cloth'. However all of the things that he describes as being blinding or foul smelling are man-made things. This is recurring theme throughout Larkin's poems, as he compares the foul industrialisation by man, to the free rural countryside. This theme is seen incredibly clearly in Larkin's poem Here.

In the middle section of the poem there are a number of places where you can split it into a number of different sections. However during the most of this part of the poem, the persona's thoughts are focused on the people that are getting on the train (the newly weds) and the people who are waving them off on they're honeymoon.

We know something has stirred within him when he says "struck, I leant//More promptly out next time, more curiously//And saw it all again in different terms:" He has taken an interest now and is watching the people on the platform. The observations that he gives about these people are so detailed and yet so blunt: "Mothers loud and fat". He continues on like this, describing and observing the people until half way through the sixth stanza when he switches to focusing on the couples who are now on the train with him; describing them as 'free at last'. As if, through the 'religious wounding' of marriage, these young people have been freed from their homes and their families and are now able to leave the nest and make their own lives.

The term 'religious wounding' is an interesting one and something worth exploring I feel. Its very unusual for someone to relate something like and injury or a wound to something so splendid and magical as marriage, however here, it becomes evident that the persona is one who prefers the idea of staying single and not having a family. This also is another recurring theme through many of Larkin's poems. I feel that with the phrase 'religious wounding' Larkin could be describing how marriage tears children away from their parents and families as they take off together in a new life. However I also feel that this could maybe viewed in a positive light as many of Larkin's ambiguous phrases and ideas can be. If you were to try and create a skin graft, you would first need to create a wound in order for the two new pieces of skin to join together and become one. It may sound a little gruesome, but could this be what Larkin is trying to say marriage is like; doing whatever it takes to allow two people to grow together and become one unit? Possibly.

The final section of the poem is my favorite part of the whole thing. I love the metaphorical and almost philosophical way that Larkin had written the last stanza. There are so many ways in which this stanza could be interpreted because it is so ambiguous. Right from the beginning of the last stanza, Larkin uses words like 'aimed' and 'loosed' which all have connotations with archery and arrows and this metaphor is confirmed in the wonderful last two lines 'like an arrow shower, sent out of sight, somewhere becoming rain'. The idea of the arrow could be taken to represent marriage in two different ways.

1. It could be suggesting that when a new couple get married, they get 'fired' out into life with encouragement and the novelty of being married, and eventually this will wear off, causing the arrow to begin to fall and eventually crash to the floor.
2. Or it could be different, that the encouragement and excitement of being married stays with them and cause them to stick together and slowly fly towards their target together.

In stanza two the idea of the train curving southward could also be mirroring the flight of and arrow.

I think that also, this last stanza is also where the persona ha his epiphany and he realises that marriage has potential to be one of the good things in life, however it could also be something that is potentially dangerous and is something to be wary about, but in the right circumstances can be a wonderful thing.

The poem itself physically seems to slow down at the end of the poem as well, as the persona's thoughts travel back to the train from his own thoughts. The train is slowing down and so does the poem.

THE WHITSUN WEDDINGS (collection) by Philip Larkin (Initial Thoughts)

For a while now, I have been quite excited about settling down and studying this collection of poetry by Phillip Larkin, and so far I have not been disappointed.

I think that the poems definitely benefited from being read aloud, I found them easier to understand and the rhythm of Larkin's voice was much clearer as were the themes and the messages that the poet threaded through his words. Having now had time to read a few on my own and in my head, I am definite of the benefit that reading out loud adds to these poems.

The themes and ideas that Larkin writes about are very different to what I was expecting. With the title of the collection mentioning Weddings, I assumed and expected the rest of the poems to be quite happy and joyful poems that talked about the good things in life and the goodness of people, so it would be fair to say that I was a little surprised when the initial themes all seemed to be along the lines of death, loneliness and depression. Still, it has not dampened my excitement about studying them.

I'll admit that I was a little shocked some of the language and terms that Larkin using in some of his poems such as 'Sunny Prestatyn'. I was a little taken back by the taboo language and in the case of this poem, I was a little put off from reading it if I'm being honest.

The final thing that surprised me a little bit was the vast array of poem length that appears throughout the collection. 'The Whitsun Weddings' is incredibly long; around three pages, whereas 'days' is incredibly short; only a few stanzas long.

Overall, my initial thoughts after reading the poems in this book are good ones and I definitely will e looking forward to studying some of these in detail. What excites me the most is the fact that every time you turn the page, Larkin gives you something different, you never know what to expect when reading his work. Although they are not at all what I expected, in someways that's good because now I know that I won't be approaching these wonderful poems with preconceived ideas and judgements in my mind. I can start off with them afresh.

LONG LANKIN by Lindsey Barraclough

Firstly let me say that I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and a good start to the new year. I'm sorry its taken a while for me to post this, but it took a little longer to read than I expected it to.

If you have read my previous post about DANCING JAX by Robin Jarvis, you will recall that I mentioned this book; LONG LANKIN, saying that it was the only book creepier than the novel by Jarvis that I have ever read, intact, reading DANCING JAX inspired me to go back and read LONG LANKIN for a second time.

It has been a good two years since I had last read this novel, but the impeccable writing and storytelling contained within its pages meant that I had hardly forgotten the terrifying tale, and the most loveable of charters, my favourite being Mr Haldane Thorston and his garden.

Barraclough tells the story of two young girls (Cora and Mimi) who are sent to live with they're Great Auntie Ida, who at first appears to hate the girls and wishes to have nothing to do with them. In the end though it turns out that the harshness and the anger that she shows towards them is born out of fear for their safety and her own. She has already been plagued by the horrific Cain Lankin and the ghosts of the children he took, long enough, and is terrified that history will repeat itself because of the two young girls, who innocently and unknowingly bring danger and the possibility of death unto the hole of Bryers Geurdon. I believe that the thing that makes Lankin such a terrifying thought is that he preys in infants and young children. Children are the thing that we most care for adore with everything we have. Most parents would do anything for their children, putting them first and doing everything possible to protect them from danger. So for Barraclough to create this monster that is virtually unstoppable (save for the lych gate), that will tear through anything that gets in his way, and will hunt down the children is horrifying. The thought of a parent/guardian not being able to do anything but what and wait while an evil, twisted creature of a man hunts down their child is a very scary thought which many people would rather not have.

I found the thought of Ida Eastfield rather interesting and insightful, as through out the book, she slowly reveals more and more about the situations, her intentions and her reasons behind her actions. The first time we hear directly from Mrs Eastfield, we begin to agree with Cora, that she is just an angry old woman who hate children, but towards the end, Ida's bitterness and harsh facade, crumbles into sorrow and regret and most importantly, eventually into determination to do what should have been done centuries ago.

The actual description of Lankin himself is enough to send a shiver down your spine, just the thought of his feet slapping the ground as he walks, the idea of his weeping, half decayed body trying to survive the half life he has is completely grotesque. On occasion, towards the end of my book, I did find myself glancing into the darker corners of my bedroom if I was reading it in bed, of looking out of the window and across the garage roof, checking the darkness for anything that wasn't the dog skulking around, miffed that he'd been kicked off the bed. When an author is able to take something completely and utterly fictional and make it seem real to the reader while they're reading it then its a pretty clear indication that they have done they're job properly.

One thing that I admire about this author is the variety of story telling voices that she has incorporated into the story, Gussie, Mr Thorston, Ida, Mrs Jotman, they all recall the same story in a different voice, revealing new parts of the story and hiding others. In many ways, Long Lankin is written more as a documentary of events than as a novel, switching between past and present tense, looking into the future and recalling history. This novel is a brilliant lesson in learning from mistakes, how and why not to do things again, or equally learning what should be done should there be a second time around.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes a book that sends a shiver down your spine and likes reading during the daytime. LONG LANKIN is a brilliantly terrifying read and I think that Barraclough is a fantastic author whose work I shall be further watching out for in the future.

This book may be unsuitable for younger readers.