Philip Larkin
Philip Larkin
Philip Larkin
The last line has only seven syllables. 'Almanacked', a long word suggesting dignity, is
contrasted with the ending of the line. "They" is an unusual word, short and lacking emphasis ,
with which the stanza ends. After the heavy tresses of the long word 'almanacked', 'they' slips the
poem into the concluding stanza:
Have slipped their names, and stand at ease, Or gallop for what must be joy, And not a field glass
sees them home, Only the grooms, and the grooms boy, With bridles in the evening come.
This last stanza presents the gloomy atmosphere in a poetic form. Here, Larkin clarifies the
happiness of the horses because they ( the horses) feel free for at last they get rid of all
responsibilities thrown on them. They use their powers as they wish and no one stops them. But
at the end of the day , the groom and his boy come with bridles to lead them home. The placing
of the simple word 'come' at the very end of the poem suggests the inevitability of the horses' fate
.As they are taken back to the stables , it is as if , as with all men, they were submitting to death.
3.2: The Analysis of Next , Please.(1964)
Another important recurring theme that Larkin tackles is an endless wish entitled as Next, Please.
The poem is self explanatory as indicated in the title. Larkin sticks to reality and an empirical
tone in various themes. He manipulates an empirical discussion in his previous poem At Grass.
He conveys a message to the reader that death is the natural and inevitable fate of all human
beings. Similar though in a different context, Larkin very clearly calls our insights that being
humans, nothing can stop us .In other words, there is no end for our desires. But the real,
empirical view denotes the opposite which is that our desires are like a ship without ''anchor".
The poem starts as follows :
Next, Please
Always too eager for the future, we
Pick up bad habits of expectancy .
Something is always approaching; every day
Till then we say,
Watching from a bluff the tiny, clear
Sparkling armada of promises draw near,
How slow they are they are! And how much time they waste,
Refusing to make haste!
Yet still they leave us holding wretched stalks
Of disappointment, for, though nothing balks
Each big approach, leaning with brasswork prinked,
Each rope distinct,
Flagged, and the figurehead wit golden tits
Arching our way, it never anchors; it's
No sooner present than it turns to past,
Right to the last
We think each one will heave to and unload
All good into our lives, all we are owed
For waiting so devoutly and so long.
But we are wrong;
nly one ship is seeking us, a black-
Sailed unfamiliar ,towing at her back
A huge and birdless silence .In her wake
No waters breed or break
''Next Please'' opens with a statement of the emotional concept with which it is concerned:
Always too eager for the future, we
Pick up bad habits of expectancy. *(T.L.D., p.20)
The poem goes on to elaborate the concept through a metaphor. The image of our watching for
the future is similar to someone who watches for ships from a cliff. When we watch , the ships
approach like hopes, but growing clearer all the time. So there is no stop for our hopes and
wishes this in itself is a gift from God to continue and never stop .The wishes are sparkling
beautifully in our mind's portrayal eyes.When we are disappointed , we try again and start
imagining our desires dreamily. Oliver Boyd believes that :
In the poem, the ships are glittering sailing vessels, with ornamented figure- heads- the objects of
our desires are always more attractive before they are realized. When they are realized they begin
to pale; the ships reach us, but do not anchor. They turn , and recede once more into the distance.
Larkin is making the point that our hopes are never fulfilled, but that, when they are fulfilled, the
fulfillment is only temporary. 23
Larkin uses a very simple language to denote the meaning he wants to convey . The theme of
wish and disappointment moves in a cycle without a stop. As usual Larkin sticks to the
systematic rhymes as AA BB but the theme is about
disillusionment after waiting for a long time. The run on lines of poetry continue as if a driver
were very quick and wanted to reach his aim but the conclusion of this poem
*T.L.D.== The Less Deceived Abbreviated title by which Philip Larkin's works are cited in
reference. contrasts strongly with the rest of the poem. In this, by far the most striking part of the
poem, Larkin says that though we constantly watch "our ship to come in":
What I do feel a bit rebellious about is that poetry seem to have got Into the hands of a critical
industry which is concerned with culture In the abstract , and this I do rather lay at the door of
Eliot and Pound I think a lot of this 'myth-kitty' business has grown out of that, because first of
all you have to be terribly educated, you have to read everything to know these things, and
secondly you've got somehow to work them in to show that you are working them in. 29
On the basis of these kinds of reservations, it therefore makes sense that Larkin's critics have
acquired the habit of discussing his poetry away from the Modernists and next to the work of
such figures as Edward Thomas and Thomas Hardy, or they discuss it in the context of the more
close-up tradition of the Movement poets. But Larkin's poetry is not as alien to the work of the
Modernists as first thoughts tend to assume. 30
Whalen continues in his discussion claiming that the subjective dimension of the poem lies in the
fact that it is precisely the personality of the poet which enables him to realize a meaning in what
he sees. It is the emotional coloring of the pesonae which gives uniqueness to the particular
vision of the physical world. Thus it is the familiar ironic persona of Larkin's 'Mr. Bleaney'
which colors the world which that poem embodies. The world perceived in the poem is one
which that particular persona has an inclination to recognize. Paradoxically, the persona's
limitation of perception is his very qualification for the uniqueness of his moment of vision. 31
One can easily understand why Larkin sticks to the physical details of Mr. Belaney's room. To
indicate a reality in such a case and in the prosaic quality of Bleaney's existence is captured in
the speaker's beholding empirical consciousness. His eye collects impressions in a journey
toward comprehension:
Flowered curtains, thin and frayed,
Fall to within five inches of the sill,
Whose window shows a strip of building land,
Tussocky, littered. ' Mr. Bleaney took
My bit of garden properly in hand.'
Bed , upright chair, sixty- watt bulb, no hook
Behind the door, no room for books or bags_
'I'II take it.' So it happens that I lie
Where Mr. Bleaney lay, and stub my fags
On the same saucer souvenir...
The objects which are selected to compromise the contemplation have all the freshness and
realistic presence which Hulme regards as necessary to the image. Butthe ordering of the images,
the connecting of the spaces between them, is the cohering process which gives the poem its true
brilliance. And the poem beckons us to participate in that process. 32
Thus the physical orientation of thought and expression in Larkin's work is one of the major
grounds on which we recognize a consonance of his craft, and of brilliance with the imagists. So,
as a conclusion in such a poem, both Hulme and Larkin seem to agree that ' The real is the only
base. But it is the base'. 33 The real is the stimulus, and is an integral part of the thinking process
of the poem. Additionally , Larkin is a poet capable of adopting radically different postures and
personae. He once said that '' what I should like to write is different types of poems that might be
by different people."
The Analysis of The Trees
The Trees
The trees are coming into leaf
Like something almost being said;
The recent buds relax and spread,
Their greenness is a kind of grief.
Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too.
Their yearly trick of looking new Is written down in rings of grain.
Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In full grown thickness every May.
Last year is dead, they seem to say,
Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.
Larkin in this twelve -line poem, presents a kind of reflective description of the speaker's
observation of trees. As usual Larkin uses three stanzas, each consists of four lines. The language
is very plain and it reflects the beauty, honesty and delicacy of nature. This state of honesty is
compared to a human being's honesty. Despite its misleading superficial simplicity, the poem
bears a deeper meaning :the trees that are reborn every year symbolize renewal and hope in the
face of the humans who have to face death eventually. So, the life and circles of a tree are
compared to a human experience.
The effect of Thomas hardy on Larkin is clear here when Larkin personifies the leaves, buds as
spoken words, grief, and countless other abstract items, each line of the poem draws a connection
between the anatomy and activity of a tree to the emotions and philosophy of a human closing
and opening various chapters in his life.35
Andrew Sanders comments on Hardy's influence on Larkin saying:
Philip Larkin discovered a new model of poetic restraint in Hardy. It is Hardy's example which
seems to inform even the Title of The Less Deceived. Much of Larkin's subsequent Poetry was to
bypass Modernist experiment and high flown Language in favor of traditional metrical forms and
a precise and plain diction .
As technical matters go, the twelve lines of the poem are arranged into four-line stanzas. In each
stanza, the first and fourth lines rhyme with each other in a true rhyme pattern (i.e. lines 5 and 8 :
again, grain) while the second and third lines work in an additional true rhyme (i.e. lines6 cand7 :
too, new ). In complete, this rhyme scheme appears in the following pattern A B B A C D D C
E F F E. There is also a consistent iambic foot and tetrameter rhythm. This simply means that
the rhythm alternates between unstressed and stressed syllables, and there is of each in each foot.
The poem is in a strictly regular metrical and rhyming structure, which is reflective of the
nature's cycling of birth, growth and renewal. "The trees" demonstrates the transience of youth as
a result of the destructive passage of time, one of the recurring themes of Larkin's works. In the
introductory part of the poem, Larkin purposefully reveals the meaninglessness of life. Larkin
explains the trees as "coming into leaf." This means the new leaf is a symbol of life and conveys
a positive, hopeful connotation. Through this physical depiction, Larkin establishes an image of
fresh growing trees, and sets a mood of liveliness in the scene. Then Larkin strengthens this
mood by mentioning and describing the comforting view of "recent buds [that] relax and spread."
So like Hardy when he personifies nature as a mother or a cloud or wind or human beings,
Larkin personifies the leaves of the trees as human beings. These leaves are like people who
grow old and die , then new green leaves start again afresh as it is mentioned in the last line of
the poem. The philosophy of Larkin lies in the fact that behind a beautiful , factual and credible
description of the trees in this last poem in this paper, or of the ships described previously or Mr.
Bleaney, there is a complete sense of sadness . Larkin achieves realistic moments by creating
such agonistic situations. There is a system in presenting the images. In other words, Larkin
creates a hierarchical shape in his poems, creating continuity like the trees first are buds, then in
the second stanza, the leaves grow perpetually young, and eventually have to die, demonstrating
the theme of inevitability of death . Larkin uses a caesura to effectively highlight that his thought
about the trees, endless youth is immediately defeated by his realization that trees do eventually
die as well as humans. This caesura underscores his abrupt wavering of tone from speculative to
pessimistic, and further emphasizes the ambiguous mood of the poem. It is through this
predominant ambiguity of the poem that Larkin reflects the opaque meaning of life in his
perspective. The words "rings of grain," denotes that despite the fresh outer appearances, the
trees are going old inside.
In the final stanza, Larkin compares the trees to "unresting castles," to denote the image of
masculine, firm trees, like castle turrets. Then Larkin's repetition of the onomatopoeia "afresh"
enhances the sound of tree leaves bustling and rustling by the wind, signifying life. Larkin
cleverly uses no enjambments at the end of each stanza but instead ends each with a period. The
speaker's use of this punctuation effectively reflects the predominant message of the poem that
even though nature repeats in cycle, there is an end eventually, underscoring the theme of the
inevitability of death. 38
In conclusion, Larkin purposely expresses his reluctance toward life, which is meaningless to
him. He ambiguously conveys that trees that appear to be young, hopeful and consoling to
human eyes, are in fact just as equally mortal as humans. From his ambivalence , Larkin conveys
that death after life is inevitable, showing his negligence of the tree's message to begin his life
afresh. The researcher views trees differently: The reader feels from it joy and affirmation, and
even motivation to try harder in all he does, as nature and its views are what he intends to rely on
whenever in problem. Yet we feel sad in the same way when the ship comes with the black color
anchor to declare death. As Alun R. Jones states in his critical notes on Larkin's works, ''the
effect [ of Larkin's writing] is akin to that achieved at times by Mozart and Schubert at their most
tender and poignant".
Larkin in The Trees , compares the life and cycles of a tree to human experience. When we read
this poem, our sense perceptions remind us of Hardy, for Larkin is really influenced by his style
and poetic devices. Riddled with personification of leaves, buds, and bark as spoken words, and
with grief and countless other abstract items, each line of the poem draws a connection between
the anatomy and activity of a tree to the emotions and philosophy of a human closing and
opening various chapters in his / her life.
So the speaker in this poem notices and observes the leaves of the trees when the old leaves fade
and die replaced by the new ones. Larkin sticks to the traditional way of design and structure of
the poem. These twelve lines of the poem are arranged into four line stanzas. In each stanza , the
first and fourth lines rhyme with each other.
Concluding Remarks
Larkin achieves success in his poetry. The most outstanding theme in the poems in question is
the theme of life and death.
Larkin follows the traditional structure in writing poetry by using the stanza forms and rhyme.
Larkin manipulates modern themes in his poetry but not in the same way used by other modern
poets like William Butler Yeats and T.S Eliot.
Larkin conveys his messages about our life and death by personifying "Nature" and in this point
he reveals the impact of Hardy on his poetry. For instance, he uses the "trees" to refer to human
beings and the old leaves of the trees to the old age of the men who die. There is the recurrent
image of life and death in most of Larkin's poetry like, Next, Please , The Grass , Mr. Bleaney,
and The Trees. In most of these poems, Larkin tries to advise us not to be cheated by our happy
days for all our hopes are going to be finished with our death. Thinking about this topic is not
bad because it tackles our own reality but it is not healthy to stick always to our end for it will
affect us negatively. There is no doubt about the fact that it is fine to be realistic but hopes should
accompany our mind and heart continuously to continue in our path courageously but not
pessimistically. Larkin uses a brilliant verse concerning the technical aspect using plain style but
with profound modern themes.
Conceptually, there is a kind of dilemma in the content of Larkin's poems. When we read these
poems, one feels a problematic situation and notices that the speaker is unable to tell the truth
and is nice at one and the same time. What makes the situation even more problematic is the lack
of any support or sympathy from the external, non- human environment. Many other aspects are
explored on the level of the poem as discourse. It bridges the gap between the poem as form and
the poem as a theme. It presents the text as a real story of the human destiny and all lexical items
are added to such a context of situation.
The researcher suggests a more optimistic topic which will only be tackled with the theme of
will-power in decreasing the tension between the human hopes and disillusionment.