MCMXIV

This poem is focused on the change that the first world war brings in society, economically, politically.  The first stanza shows the sheer excitement of those men who are willing to go to to war "grinning" you can imagine with such excitement to do so. Larkin describes them waiting to go to war, as if they are to go wait to play a sport in "the oval" (cricket), suggesting that at the start war was merely a game. The attitudes of the men, are suggested to be like those on "an August bank holiday lark", showing how the men had a lack of seriousness to what they were about to embark upon. The form of dramatic irony within the reader, as we all know the terrors to which the men were about to go and face.

The second stanza the times of 1914, where "farthings and sovereigns" were still in use, along with the "shut shops" with the old "bleached established names on the sun-blinds" which show how the war have closed businesses and took effect on the average persons every day life. There were no children clothing at the time, so they wore adults clothing in smaller sizes but were the "dark-clothed", the darkness could suggest how no life or light will return until those on the front do and the  war is over.
How the children called "after Kings and Queens", in which at this time Britain was still and empire, where George's, Edward's roamed the land.
The t"tin advertisements" are a form of hope, a form of life for the soldiers on the front, a source of energy ad food, in which the "pubs wide open all day" bringing a sense of community to all people at home, where they can gather and share hope together.
The third stanza shows how Larkin has personified the countryside for not caring about war. The dust lingering within this stanza, is the dust of the lives before the war, the houses to which the lords and ladies lived in, with luncheons and dinner parties,, where there was a stark contrast between the upper class ad the urban working, but war finds a way to bring it all together. However, in this stanza the contrast yet still remains, "the differently dressed servants" who still work in the manor houses. In a way could show how the war has yet to reach the country side. Personally, I thought the reference to the "shadowing Domesday lines" was a reference to the front lines of the war, that the war had been brought home and this manor house with servants, where the house had been turned into  a convalescence home for the soldiers.
The final stanza emphasizes the innocence/ignorance to the upcoming war. With the repetition of the word "never" to suggest how the soldiers, the people at home have not yet witnessed such modern advanced warfare. "As changed itself to past without a word" shows how the change in the world occurred without even a mention to such, it merely happen on its own account. The juxtaposition of "the men" who leave their "gardens tidy" and their marriages "lasting a little while longer", showing how war prolongs the good at home, the problems that may have been faced before war, are now swept under  the carpet as faith and hope keep everyone strong.
The final line of the poem, "never such innocence again", suggests the generalization upon the whole nation, the generation of the time. The advancements that this new warfare brought, showed the men on the front the disastrous events, e.g The Battle of the Somme July 1916, saw nearly 60,000 British men wounded and dead, the people on the home front the families having to read such horrors that occurred in this war, tore away any protection of innocence the Victorian/Edwardian eara's had set in place, society had it's turning point to the modern everyday life that we now live in. 

Talking in bed

Love is an important factor in physical and emotional relationships- the good things that love brings along with bitter ones and disappointment. The sense of broken communication and isolation is well displayed through the structure and form of the poem. Rhyming ABA CAC DCD, and a final tercet rhyming EEE, what portray the absence of continuity and the broken-up nature of the couple's discourse.
As Larkin suggests, “It becomes more difficult to find / Words once true and kind”, it could be difficult for these two people to express verbally how they feel or it could be also possible that they spoke about the relationship, which has hurt them emotionally and they created the isolation, although words kind and true both relate with human language in positive manner. The double negative not + un “Or not untrue and not unkind”  leaves the reader ambiguous feeling of unfulfilled desire. Very similar situation is “At this unique distance from isolation”, suggesting that someone can be distanced from isolation and ironically very close at the same time.

Larkin’s poem “Talking in bed” enables us to relate to possible common experiences in our own lives and provoke us to think about both – the gap between expectations and reality – and irony of love in modern world. However, an irony, one of the dominant features in this poem, gives us the opportunity to create our own perception of love. I think Larkin believed that love is a positive thing, but we all know that reality makes nothing simple and often confront us with painful disappointment.

Dancing at Lughnasa

Irish Catholicism, its rituals and rules and its resonances within the family and as well as the clashes it produces.  
Notes collected
The play is set in a small rural community in the north of Ireland in the early 20h century. The power of the Catholic religion is evident in this small community. There are also certain pagan practices mentioned such as the Festival of Lughnasa where a young boy was burned in a type of ritual. 
Just as the radio is a partly foreign and potentially corrupting influence in the Mundy cottage, so the homecoming of Father 
Jack brings with it alien and challenging ideas and behaviour. Jack, for years a source of great pride as Ballybeg’s ‘own leper priest’, has transgressed his role in Ryanga and ‘gone native’. He has come to accept and even embrace the traditional rituals and way of life which seem to work well for the Ryangan villagers. And within this acceptance is an implicit critique of the Catholic missionary model, an understanding that it would fail to meet the spiritual and emotional needs of the community of lepers. Elsewhere too Friel is interested in the failure of institutional Christianity to be a force for good in the lives of its followers. In Dancing at Lughnasa, Kate comes to reconcile her strict Catholic beliefs with her brother’s behaviour by classifying it as ‘his own distinctive search’. The rest of the community, however, is less forgiving. The local priest, who is also Kate’s employer, sacks her from her job as schoolteacher, ostensibly because of falling class sizes, but in reality as a punishment for Jack’s renegade behaviour. In doing so he plunges the entire Mundy household into deepening poverty.Father Jack’s Ugandan experiences are not the only source of paganism in the play. At Lughnasa time, the back hill locals of Ballybeg practice a ceremony involving dancing, fire, and animal sacrifice, just like Jack’s African rituals. Maire MacNeill’s book The Festival of Lughnasa explores Celtic and pre-Christian harvest rituals and how they continued in 

Ireland into modern times (see page 13 of this pack). While there is no evidence of goat sacrifice in the 20th century – as 

Rose dramatically describes – the practice of large groups gathered to sing and dance on hilltops is well documented. 

Yet in the 1920s and 30s – the early years of the new Irish Free State – even such seemingly innocent and traditionally 

Celtic activities came to be frowned upon by an increasingly conservative church and state, and would not long survive into 

the century. 

Christianity is strongly present in these stories, but sometimes sits alongside or is seen in conflict with traditional Celtic or 

pagan ways. The archive records the final decades of the old way of life in rural Ireland, before technology and industrialisation would 

change things forever.

Red Balloon

The red balloon throughout the poem is a symbol of religion, the non Jews of this poem believe it to be "stained with our dear Lord's blood", but I think that the balloon stands as a symbol for the blood lost in the Jewish race, and the strength it endured as "it would not burst" suggesting it is somewhat unstoppable.
As the persona has this balloon enter his life as it "oddly" landed where he stood, he passed onto it life, but "breathing on it " and "polished" it, thus giving a red that "shone like living blood". This foreshadowing the interpretation of the symbol of the "Lord's blood", but it could also be the persona's blood, as if he brought it to life, it could have his life captured within it.
It attracted attention, the persona's emotions mixed towards the balloon, but with maturity "it ceased to be a toy" thus showing that its not something he can play with, it's something he must treasure and look after. The persona later on starts to refers it as a "precious" where it is now something of great value to him, where it's so important that the persona "to no one dare show it" but in contrast will boast about it.
The ignorance and mockery shown within the conversation between the persona and the 'best friend', degrade the balloon to label of "Jew" with the persona defending the relevance to that. The final stanza shows the attempts to destroy the balloon, "their dirty knives" "lunged" "clawed" at the balloon, but it wouldn't burst. You could relate this to some previous events that have happened in the Jewish history, for example, the holocaust, the Jewish race were discrimated, persecuted against by an entire country, they were killed, tortured in the attempt to wipe the race out, but the outcome of it all? It didn't happen, where the strength of them carried on to live after all they had been through, their "living blood" kept pumping through their race.

Wild Oats

This poem is based upon the only woman Larkin came close to marriage with: his first girlfriend Ruth Bowman. She had a friend called Jane, who is the model for the “bosomy English rose”, while sixteen-year-old Ruth was “her friend in specs I could talk to”.The title ‘Wild Oats’ comes from a common euphemism for sex: an encouragement for boys to go out and ‘saw some wild oats’ – sleep with lots of women before getting serious. During the 1950s, there was still a real dichotomy between males and females: men were encouraged to ‘get out there’, while women were advised to remain chaste.Considering ‘A Study of Reading Habits’ and Larkin, though, this seems a somewhat ironic title: no matter the adolescent fantasies of the persona in ‘A Study’, Larkin doesn’t seem the type to have cast many. Immediately in this poem, the persona is intimidated by the “rose” and “it was the friend I took out”. In the second stanza, he believes he “met beautiful twice” and he is convinced that both times “she was trying” “not to laugh”. It shows again the low self-confidence, unlike the “wild oats”.

The relationship went on for “seven years” and even as far as engagement, “Gave a ten-guinea ring,” but in the end it didn’t last. The persona’s colloquial attitude to the giving is rather dismissive anyway, and the whole poem is tongue-in-cheek. In real life, Larkin was quite cruel to Ruth, and the conclusion is probably what she said of Larkin, “That I was too selfish, withdrawn, / And easily bored to love.” Again, the persona is dismissive and tongue-in-cheek in response to this: “Well, useful to get that learned.”

Though this is a reflection on the past of “about twenty years ago”, the persona still has “two snaps / Of bosomy rose with fur gloves on”. The persona comes to the trivial conclusion, in that he is still single, that they are “unlucky charms”. Yet, as with many of Larkin’s poems, the last word discredits this light-hearted conclusion: “perhaps.” Perhaps those “snaps” are “unlucky charms”, but perhaps there is a much darker, more serious reason for the ‘Mr Bleaney’-like existence.

Self's the Man

In the setting of a lymeric, here used to convey the humerus  tone set within the poem, which is shown in the rhyme scheme, AB CD. 
The poem starts off with -Oh, no one can deny / That Arnold is less selfish than I”. The colloquial “oh” gives a sense of how he brushes it off, and he seems to be boastful of his selfishness. Into the next few lines, he presents a stereotypical image of marriage as entrapment, “married a woman to stop her getting away” and the ironic aside, ‘Now she’s there all day” as though his “less selfish” friend didn't know what he was letting himself into. Notice how he refers to her as a mere “woman” – not a lover, and there seems to be, at least from the persona’s perspective, no love in the relationship.
The hyperbolic language used to describe the 'stereotypical' marriage in the following stanzas, "he has no time at all" suggesting how  the marriage is so consuming,Arnold, has no time to himself, the metaphor of "it's put a screw in this wall" is somewhat what the marriage has done to him. He has been screwed to the wall of marriage, where time, alone, selfishness, cease not to exist, merely hanging around him but unreachable. Here we can get a sense of sympathy from the persona to Arnold, where he then goes onto comparing "his life and mine" makes the persona feel "a swine" (feeling like an unpleasant person", and the realization bestowed upon him that Arnold is "less selfish" than the persona. But continues to justify that marriage is selfish, that "not just pleasing his own friends" suggests that he is pleasing the one he loves, the woman he chose to marry, and surely that is not selfish to say the least. 
But in the final stanza, a conclusion made by the persona, that "he and I are the same" simply meaning that in oth their lives, they made the selfish decision to do what they wanted to get out of life. But the persona knows "what he can stand" meaning that a marriage, children and the commitments to that are not what he could manage. 

Ambulances

A meditation on the closeness of death, its randomness and its inevitability. These three ideas are captured for Larkin in the action of ambulances in the city. Today young people might see ambulances as a sign of hope, a positive intervention sustaining life rather than heralding death. When the poem was written in the 

fifties, to be carried away in an ambulance was a sign of worse to come. Ambulances is, in its totality, a celebration of the values of consciousness. It modestly and devoutly collects evidence of ordinary life to create a truth which can be universally acknowledged. The poem is a depressing one. The very title suggests something saddening. Ambulances drive through a city street, and stop to pick up a critically sick man and take him to a hospital.
 Everybody looks at an ambulance when it is driving through the streets, though an ambulance does not look back at anybody. The sick man has been taken away to a hospital and the sense of loss which the spectators might have experienced would then abruptly come to an end. The man, who has been carried to the hospital by the ambulance, had led a meaningful life which was a mixture of family relationships and an observance of the fashions of the time. But that life has now come to an end and has, in fact, lost all its meaning.


The main idea in this poem is that an ambulance signifies illness, and that it fills the spectators with the thought of death. The first two stanzas of the poem contain vivid and realistic imagery of the ambulances threading their way through the streets of a city possibly at noon-time when there are many loud noises coming from the traffic and from the crowds of people. When an ambulance comes to a stop, women coming from the shops look at the wild white face of the sick man who is being taken away to a hospital. The remaining three stanzas of this poem contain the poet’s reflections and meditations on the sad fate which awaits all of us. The entire life of an individual loses its meaning in the face of his approaching death. What gives to the poem Ambulances its impressive authority is its relentless insistence that “all streets in time are visited,” and its closing assertion that to be taken away by an ambulance “brings closer what is left to come, /And dulls to distance all we are.” 

The first two stanzas of this poem contain vivid and realistic imagery of the ambulances threading their way through the streets of a city possibly at noon-time when there are many loud noises coming from the traffic and from the crowds of people. When an ambulance comes to a stop, women coming from the shops look at the wild white face of the sick man who is being taken away to a hospital. There is a realistic detail about the women coming from the shops, “past smells of different dinners,” meaning that these women have passed several food-shops which were emitting odours of different kinds. The remaining three stanzas of this poem contain the poet’s reflections and meditations on the sad fate which awaits all of us. The entire life of an individual loses its meaning in the face of his approaching death. There is a vivid picture also in the line: “The traffic parts to let go by”. When an ambulance is driving through a street, the people move quickly to one side or the other in order to make way for the ambulance.