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Here is another Larkin poem where we see him embark upon a train journey- but from the start of the poem to the end the train is gradually slowing down. The first stanza is a negative outlook on the man made urban town/city that Larkin is witnessing, with it's "gull-marked mud" the fields were too "thin and thistled to be called meadows". This stanza also shows the speed of the train, how it is constantly "swerving" and it links in parallel to the rivers "slow presence". 

Stanza 1 and 2 both juxtapose each other as they show the difference between the urban man made and the rural landscape. The mechanical shift within this stanza is shown through the list of typical 'wants' in life. The "electric mixers, toasters, washers" are the domestic necessities in life- the "desires". We see how this town/city is busy industrially with the "crain cluster", "barge-crowded water" all symbolism the modern growth in mechanical usage, which is why this stanza is in stark contrast with the first one due to the change in time.