Philip Larkin poem comparison - 1150 Words

How does Philip Larkin explore the role of women in at least two poems you have studied? Philip Larkin’s relationships with women are often scrutinized in the media. He was often accused of misogyny and never married, though had several prominent relationships. Having once said, â€Å"Sex means nothing – just the moment of ecstasy, that flares and dies in minutes†, one could infer that Larkin had a dismissive attitude towards sexual relationships. Two poems from the Whitsun Weddings collection, Wild Oats (a recount of a man’s encounters with two women) and Sunny Prestatyn, (the description of the defacement of a poster) explore different attitudes towards women, and I will be drawing also from A Study of Reading Habits. Common themes in†¦show more content†¦The word â€Å"hunk† presents a masculine theme and shows that men will find this resort attractive. The further description of a hotel â€Å"expanding from her thighs†, presents to the reader that the woman is being sexualized. The second stanza, describing the defac ement of the poster in the period of a fortnight, including being made â€Å"snaggle-toothed and boss-eyed†, ultimately implies that beauty is transitory. In the third stanza, there is the actual removal of the poster, leaving â€Å"only a hand and some blue†. This signifies that the poster was trivial and can be physically broken. Finally, the last line describes another poster, â€Å"Fight Cancer†, being put up which further trivialises the poster, as it was replaced so easily. The dark message created is that injustice against women can be easily looked over. Larkin demonstrates this also in A Study of Reading Habits; the women are broken up like â€Å"meringues†. Women are presented as being easily disposable, as food is. Another similarity in the imagery between these two poems is the implication of women’s innocence; white is projected into the reader’s mind by the meringues, and again in Sunny Prestatyn by the â€Å"tautened white satin† worn by the woman. The rhyming of â€Å"white satin† and â€Å"Prestatyn† put the town in a positive light, but also creates a gentle rhythm, juxtaposed by the dark tone created by the same rhythm in the following stanzas. The imagery given in these two poems of a woman asShow MoreRelatedComparison of Philip Larkin ´s High Windows and Seamus Heaney ´s Punishment905 Words   |  4 PagesPhilip Larkin (1922-1895) was an English novelist and poet, in 1955 he became a Liberian at the University of Hull. He would stay on working at the University until his death in 1895. During the first few months of his time working at the University he stayed in various bedsits, after this he moved into a flat which appears to be the same flat in which he wrote his poem â€Å"High Windows† which was first published in 1974. Clive James commented on this poem by saying: â€Å"The total impression of High WindowsRead MorePhilip Larkin Love and Marraige4262 Words   |  18 PagesLove and Marriage with Philip Larkin and Eavan Boland Ashley Couch Houghton College It is strange how time changes relationships. When I first started dating the man who is now my fiancà ©e, one of my biggest fears was of walking down the aisle on our wedding day, feeling unsure that I was making the right decision by marrying him. Now what I most often fear for our relationship is falling out of love, as so many couples do. This is something I brood on, discuss, and develop intricate strategies againstRead MoreLiterary Analysis : Dubliners And Larkin s Collection Of Poems2936 Words   |  12 Pagesrelationships in Joyce’s collection of short stories ‘Dubliners’ and Larkin’s collection of poems ‘The Whitsun Weddings’. Philip Larkin was writing in the 1960s when there was a huge revolution in social norms, such as attitudes towards sex, which is highlighted upon in his poem Wild Oats. In both Dockery and Son and The Boarding house, the writers express an unfulfilling view of love after marriage. Whereas Larkin believed hav ing children sparked the catalyst to an unfulfilling relationship, as expressedRead MoreIsolation and Confronting the Cultural Norms in Philip Larkin ´s Poems2748 Words   |  11 Pagesthemes throughout literature. However, Philip Larkin, whose poetry is often associated with the mundane and marginalized, transcends these themes by allowing his poetry to become more than just slices of life. His poems â€Å"Talking in Bed† and â€Å"High Windows†, examine the seemingly ordinary experiences of a couples silence, and wanting to relive the past through the lens of isolation and questioning cultural values. In his poems â€Å"Talking in Bed† and â€Å"High Windows† Larkin uses simplistic language to conveyRead MoreCompare Plath and Larkin3241 Words   |  13 PagesCompare and contrast the ways in which death is portrayed in Philip Larkin’s poem ‘Days’ and ‘Ambulances’ and Sylvia plath’s ‘Lady Lazarus’ and ‘Death and Co’ The poems i am going to analyse are: †¢ Lady Lazarus †¢ Death and Co †¢ Ambulances †¢ Days It is understatement to say that both Sylvia Plath and Philip Larkin have immense depth and subsidiary meanings to their poems, both writers expertly structure their poems and used varied techniques to convey their themes of death and instil their messagesRead MoreToads and Toads Revisited Comparison (Philip Larkin)1873 Words   |  8 Pagesï » ¿Toads and Toads Revisited are poems in Philip Larkin’s collection that describes both the perks and burdens of a work life. Larkin’s view of work in ‘Toads’ is seen as a heavy load whereas in ‘Toads Revisited’, it is seen as something that keeps him occupied and helps him though life. ‘Toads Revisited’ was written after Larkin became a firmly established chief librarian of the Hull Library and he had no further to go because he had already reached the top position. His attitude to work had undergoneRead MoreLiterary Group in British Poetry5631 Words   |  23 PagesThe history of English poetry stretches from the middle of the 7th century to the present day. Over this period, English poets have written some of the most enduring poems in Western culture, and the language and its poetry have spread around the globe. Consequently, the term English poetry is unavoidably ambiguous. It can mean poetry written in England, or poetry written in the English language. The earliest surviving poetry was likely transmitted orally and then written down in versions that doRead More Augustan Poetic Tradition Essay4394 Words   |  18 Pagesconsolations often lie in the invigorating strains of the poetic tradition itself (Burris ix). For Heaney, those strains are primarily formal. I rhyme / To see myself, to set the darkness echoing, Heaney writes in Personal Helicon, the final poem in his first collection, Death of a Naturalist (1966). Although rhyme here signifies, more generally, writing in verse, whether rhymed or free, Heaney is certainly drawn to rhyme and closed forms. He is especially partial to rhymed triplets and quatrains;