... This led to mass consumerism and compulsive acquisitiveness, a theme which features frequently throughout ‘The Whitsun Weddings’. The rural world at this time however, was more positive for Larkin. It held the key to peace and solitude for him.
Literary Background:
Larkin was part of ... Read review
In The Whitsun Weddings the title-poem describes the poet's journey by train from Hull to ... more
London. Whitsun is the seventh Sunday after Easter. In the 1950s British tax law made the Whitsun weekend a financially advantageous time to be married: "Just long enough to settle hats and say / I nearly died / A dozen marriages got under way. / They watched the landscape sitting side by side/." Larkin used the tones and rhythms of ordinary speech and focused on the urban landscape of the industrial north. "Canals with floatings of industrial froth; / A hothouse flashed uniquely: hedges dipped / And rose: and now and then a smell of grass / Displaced the reek of buttoned carriage-cloth / Until the next town new and nondescript / Approached with acres of dismantled cars. With his second volume of poetry The Less Deceived (1955) Larkin became the preeminent poet of his generation and a leading voice of what came to be called "The Movement " a group of young English writers who rejected the prevailing fashion for neo-Romantic writing in the style of Yeats and Dylan Thomas.
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Advantages: Profound but down to Earth - a poetic genius... Disadvantages: You'll either love him or hate him!
Philip Larkin, an insight into the genius, the poet, the man…
I have to admit that when I first started to study Larkin for my A – levels, it was difficult not to curse him, let alone like him! On the surface, Larkin appears to be a misogynistic and sexist man with a supercilious eye for anything lower class. This, unfortunately has become the most popular attitude towards Larkin, however, I feel that this is not the case. After having ... ...you must go deeper than the words on the page in order to understand this mysterious but incredible writer, and that is what I intend to help people to do…
General Background:
Philip Larkin was born in 1922 in Coventry. He grew up there and went to read English at Oxford University. For the remaining thirty years of his life, Larkin lived in Hull where he became the librarian at the city’s university, until his death ... more
Philip Larkin, an insight into the genius, the poet, the man…
I have to admit that when I first started to study Larkin for my A – levels, it was difficult not to curse him, let alone like him! On the surface, Larkin appears to be a misogynistic and sexist man with a supercilious eye for anything lower class. This, unfortunately has become the most popular attitude towards Larkin, however, I feel that this is not the case. After having studied only the poetry, it would be, I admit, easy to criticise Larkin, but you must go deeper than the words on the page in order to understand this mysterious but incredible writer, and that is what I intend to help people to do…
General Background:
Philip Larkin was born in 1922 in Coventry. He grew up there and went to read English at Oxford University. For the remaining thirty years of his life, Larkin lived in Hull where he became the librarian at the city’s university, until his death in 1985.
Personal Background:
Larkin lived his life a bachelor. Although he had love interests and engaged in relationships of a sexual nature, Larkin never committed fully to any of these women (despite ‘proposing’ to his ‘girlfriend Maeve Brennan). His reason was simple, he himself admitted that he didn’t want to expose himself to the demands that love and marriage makes upon you, a fair justification I feel. However, it was not only marriage that he shied away from. In a 1964 interview with Sir John Betjeman, Larkin said that Hull appealed to him because he liked ‘living on the edge of things’. He went on to describe Hull with ‘it’s face half turned towards silence…’ hence his reason for living there – he enjoyed the space to merely observe life rather than partake in it, admitting that he was ‘incurious to other places’.
Social Background:
Larkin was a man of his time. He shared many frustrations with his generation. For example, the 1950’s in which he wrote was a time of industrialisation and post-war urban renewal. This led to mass consumerism and compulsive acquisitiveness, a theme which features frequently throughout ‘The Whitsun Weddings’. The rural world at this time however, was more positive for Larkin. It held the key to peace and solitude for him. Literary Background:
Larkin was part of ‘The Movement’, a group of writers who believed in the ‘Pleasure Principle’ – a theory that poetry should only be written if it is easily comprehensible and enjoyable, hence their avoidance of esoteric poetry of the 19th century. The Movement wrote about everyday things in a down-to-earth manner, as Larkin does in the ‘Whitsun Weddings’.
‘The Whitsun Weddings’:
Larkin’s second mature collection of poetry, ‘The Whitsun Weddings’ was published in 1964. Consisting of 32 poems in total, the collection, I believe, has a universal and transcendent quality, making it appropriate for an audience at any point in time, tackling everyday issues such as:
·Marriage and relationships ·The importance of love ·Social isolation ·The disparity between illusion and reality ·Time ·Religion ·Death.
I always hate to put poems in ‘categories’ as I feel that a poem can mean something completely different to every single person that reads it. However, for the purpose of the review, I want to try and categorise a few of my favourite poems in order to portray Larkin’s style and flair, so here goes!
The title poem – ‘The Whitsun Weddings’ (marriage and relationships) has been named one of Larkin’s most celebratory poems. It depicts a train journey from the North of England to London, in which the protagonist (possibly Larkin) witnesses several newly wed couples boarding the train at each station for their honeymoon, with their respective wedding parties waving farewell to them. Initially, the poem seems to be a criticism on behalf of the protagonist, towards the wedding parties, with the ‘pomaded girls in parodies of fashion’, ‘the uncles shouting smut’, the ‘jewellery-substitutes’ and the ‘perms’. However, in the final stanzas Larkin appears to associate with the new couples in this ‘frail travelling coincidence’ and ends with a heart-warming image of the couples as an ‘arrow-shower…somewhere becoming rain’, suggesting that there is hope for these couples. See – it’s not all gloom and doom! Heehee!
‘Love Songs In Age’ (The importance of love) is another of my favourites. It tells of an older widowed woman (possibly Larkin’s mum), who accidentally finds her old music sheets one day. These bring back positive memories of her youth, as a ‘spring woken tree’. However, she then realises that her youth is gone and that love has not survived through all the years as it says in songs. Here, Larkin is criticising the way in which love often becomes a commercial ‘glare’, although in the final stanza he emphasises the fact that it should be the fundamentals of love that are treasured, not the illusions. An important message, and a real gem in my opinion!
Social isolation is depicted in the poem, ‘Mr. Bleaney’. Here, Larkin portrays an old man who, when he died, had ‘no more to show’ than a hired bed-sit flat, with ‘thin and frayed’ curtains and ‘fags… on a saucer souvenir’. The protagonist (possibly Larkin) begins to familiarise himself with Mr. Bleaney and the tone becomes more philosophical as he ponders the result of his life. A good one to get you thinking!
‘Essential Beauty’ portrays perfectly, Larkin’s attitude towards the disparity between illusion and reality. This poem, (another of my fave’s surprise surprise!) shows the difference between the perfect world of advertising – a favourite moot point of Larkin’s, and the grim reality of the everyday world. Describing the familiar bill boards that ‘cover slums’ with praise of ‘golden butter…well balanced families’ and ‘slippers on warm mats’, Larkin then cleverly employs juxtaposition to convey the reality – the boy ‘puking his heart out’, ‘the dying smokers’ and the ‘unfocused she’ (perfection) that ‘no drag ever brought near’. Again, a real eye opener.
The issue of ‘Time’, I have to admit, was never one of my favourites when studying ‘The Whitsun Weddings’, however, it is easy to see why Larkin found this issue important, in the poem, ‘An Arundel Tomb’. This poem discloses two very important points –by describing a stone tomb monument of a couple (apparently still ‘in love’ as they are holding hands) that is gradually being worn away, Larkin shows us the way in which individual lives are made redundant by the passage of time, and also the way in which the human capacity for love cannot triumph of the power of time (however naively we wish it could). Powerful stuff eh?
As a confirmed agnostic, Larkin never committed to a religion or faith, instead, in his poem ‘Water’, Larkin ‘constructs’ a religion. Although a short poem, Larkin’s point is clear, that all other existing religions will never be enough for him as none of them consist completely of the sense of peace that he needs.
And finally, ‘Death’, what a lovely one to end on?! Larkin a paradoxical attitude towards death, on one hand he was morbidly afraid of the ‘unenclosed endless space’ it would bring, but on the other hand, he was almost drawn to it, seeing it as the ultimate sense of peace and relief. In his poem ‘Ambulances’, Larkin begins looking at an ambulances’ journey through ‘loud noons of cities’ but ends on the issue of death’s inevitability that ‘brings closer what is left to come, /And dulls to distance all we are.’ A striking and shocking poem, I’m sure you’ll agree.
So here we are, at the end of just a small insight into the man behind the poetry. I’m not quite sure exactly what it is that I love about Philip Larkin. I think his style has definitely got something to do with it – that colloquial and taboo-like charm never fails to bring a chuckle! But whatever it is, there will always be some who love him, and some who hate him! Ah well, you can’t please everyone heehee!
Why read poetry? It's hardly the most popular art form; most of us prefer to escape into a film, a soap or fantasy fiction. To be honest, I don't often read it myself. One or two poets, though, keep me coming back. Philip Larkin is one of them. I know he's unfashionable. His views on politics and women were not the most enlightened. His image was miserly, xenophobic and antisocial. His poems were firmly set in the world of buses, billboards, bedsits ... ...echo in my mind. And the solitary, gloomy persona in his poems was not, by all accounts, the irreverent, sociable man he was in reality. To add to these contradictions, I'd suggest that by dwelling on the mundane and the everyday, he revealed essential truths about life, the universe and everything.
His poems offer little in the way of comfort or escape from the dreary realities of life. He confronts and exposes the deceptions behind the gloss, ...
Silverback 30.04.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Whitsun Weddings - Philip Larkin
Advantages: Stunning, meaningful poetry Disadvantages: Too small a book!
...and his collection of verse,' The Whitsun Weddings' I owe to my friend David Evennett, one-time Member of Parliament for Erith and Crayford. Back when I was researcher for a Member of Parliament, I had an avocation as a poet, and had just published my first book of poetry. David discovered this, and recommended Larkin as a poetic voice worthy of attention. (His researcher acted surprised, blurting out loud much to our amusement, 'And here I always ... ...been reprinted four times during the 1970s, four times during the 1980s, and continues to be reprinted periodically up to the present day. John Betjeman, one-time poet laureate of England, once commented of Larkin that 'this tenderly observant poet writes clearly, rhythmically, and thoughtfully about what all of us can understand.' This is the key to Larkin's verse -- accessibility. There are no obvious poetical devices that overpower the meaning ...
frkurt 07.06.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Whitsun Weddings - Philip Larkin
Advantages: Realist and humourous Disadvantages: Some may be offended by his sexism
...studying English Literature at A’Level. The Whitsun Weddings was the start of a beautiful friendship with his wit, cynicism and downright sexist attitude. Despite my ‘feminist’ leanings and the fact that if any man were to comment on any inferiority I had as a woman, they would no longer be able to father children, Larkin made me laugh. Larkin quite simply mocked his own failings and anything, which he does insinuate in his poetry, ... ...his reclusive nature was nicknamed the ‘Hermit of Hull’. After seeing a photograph of him in an article I read sometime ago (Large black-rimmed glasses, an ‘egg’ shaped bald head – think Penfold from Dangermouse) and reading his poetry, you have the impression of a sad old man who was never totally at ease with himself. Who wanted life to be exciting but never knew how to make it such.
And so to Larkin’s poetry…
...
HappyBunny 05.10.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Whitsun Weddings - Philip Larkin
Advantages: Believable criticisms of life, well written Disadvantages: Not particularly interesting, dull and depressing to read.
...commentaries on British life in the 20th century. It's not surprising that I didn't enjoy reading one of Larkin's most famous anthologies, "the Whitsun Weddings." The only reason I became exposed to this poet and this collection was through my A-level English Literature, and along with my Louis XIV topic in History it was one of the rare occasions when I've felt pushed to succeed at an examination simply so I can forget all about it for alway. However, ... ...certainly has a grasp of the poetic device and of the worse aspects of life. On reading this, one may wonder whether the term 'curmudgeon' was invented with this man in mind; it is a very fun word though. This collection, which is all I have read or will hopefully read, deals with a number of issues, although the main theme is of love and relationships. on examining it in detail, I discovered that that poems "Love Songs in Age," examining how the ...
gunmenoftheapocalypse 15.12.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Whitsun Weddings - Philip Larkin
Advantages: thought provoking, easy to read. Disadvantages: highly pessimistic so don't expect laughs.
...disagree.
A lot of the poems are actually very philiosophical and I urge everyone to read this particular anthology which is called "The Whitsun Weddings," named after a poem in the anothology itself.
The collection is one of three main anothology's and is highly rated amongst the best. The "Times Literary Supplement" think it isa worthwhile read also. It is a set text on the WJEC A level board so is a book of high reputation amongst the exam boards.
... ...Life and Death
The idea of death and what is the meaning of us being hear always appears in Larkin's strictly Atheist ideas and provides an interesting outlook, if not a little downbeat. "Ambulances" can be read in order to get a full idea of his views on this subject.
"The fastened doors recede. 'Poor soul',
They whisper at their own distress."
This pessimistic line shows how selfish people are. Even though the fastened doors are taking someone ...
Joeyjoe 21.05.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of The Whitsun Weddings - Philip Larkin
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