Philip Larkin’s Poetry Essay

In what shipway does Larkins poetry show his attitude to expiration? In Philip Larkins poetry in that respect is a pro ready whiz of unease intimately dying. Larkin, by means ofout his poetry, ostensibly regards the inevitable end that is expiration. In his poetry Larkin uses colossal observanceal skills, noning and writing about daily circumstances in cinematic detail. With decease, though, Larkin has nothing to observe. He cannot draw some(prenominal) precise conclusions about something that he has not directly experienced. I specify, therefore, that Larkin shows a fear of finale through his poetry, moreover also a deep fascination with it.I stipulate to show Larkins attitude to termination through a design of his poems. In these poems Larkin certainly does show a fascination with death, provided hopefully I give also show that Larkins attitude is not completely negative and that Larkin whitethorn picture that death can subscribe a save end.The front poem from my selection that I will use is Ambulances, a poem where even out the title suggests relation to death. In Ambulances the emphasis is definitely placed upon death, the first declension actu completelyy hints upon Larkins attitude to death. He begins by lopting a very melancholy moving picture within the readers mind, saying Closed resembling confessionals An almost dooming phrase. The instant image given by this maven line is dread. some tidy sum dread going to confession and the thought of disclosing integritys secrets and sins can make it seem even more daunting.Larkin actu whollyy had no come for religion, in fact it was quite the opposite, and the comparison make between ambulances and confessionals can actually be seen as an attack on ambulances, present that they be a front, concealing the inevitable. The com workforcet upon the path that they administer they thread Loud noons of cities may be used to represent death being everywhere, and comparable a thread it is woven into our lives. One may also see a religious reference within this phrase, showing that God who is supposedly with us always is now replaced with death looming everywhere us. even off amongst the vibrancy and lively atmosphere of the city, perhaps even a rush hour, death still looms.We see Larkins great observation he almost absorbs everything he sees, giving back None of the glances they absorb. take d receive glossy grey, arms on a plaque. Larkin sees as ambulances as representing death, which takes tone, carrying it glum but never returning it. He also shows not solitary(prenominal) his sustain fascination with death, but also the fascination all people have. Whenever people see the ambulance they immediately st be.The imagery of death as barge glossy grey, arms on a plaque and They come to heartsease on any kerb creates an impression upon the reader making them font at their own mortality and they realise that death is the one fairness we all ess ential encounter Larkin is bleakly honest when he says solely streets in time are visited This clearly shows that death is also crude in all places and paints a picture for the reader to understand.Then children strewn on steps or road, Or wo manpower coming from the shops Past olfactions of different dinners Larkin takes everyday chores experiences and relates them to death, showing how commonplace death is. The image of children being strewn reflects the randomness of death. An image is evoked from the reader of bodies scattered and strewn afterwards death has finally reached them. flat the youthful cannot escape death, children are susceptible. see A wild bloodless face that overtops Red stretcher blankets momently As it is carried and stowed The use of enjambment rushes the reader through the lines and ives a sense of panic at the people of this soulfulness being taken away. The use of the word stowed shows that the body is retributory like an object being stowed away, an unimportant thing.Larkin then describes death as the solving emptiness. Life is seen as having such a meaningless nature and that death is there and lies just under all we do. Death constantly threatens us in everything we do. This shows the fragility of human manners.And for a second get it whole, So permanent and blank and true. This truth is inescapable, the repeating of and drags out this whole meaning. Theutter truth is that death is forever, like the ambulances, we do not return. Larkin shows that people think of death, but when they see the truth that death h onetime(a)s it frightens them and they place it in the back of their minds. This is shown when he says The tied(p) doors recede These fastened doors are the doors of the mind closed to what they dont want to know, what they cannot maybe comprehend.As the body was stowed the people whisper poor thing but at their own distress . These people do know that all streets in time are visited, including their own. When a nything bad occurs, one naturally reacts by comparing the situation to ones own life. We are large-hearted but naturally selfish. We all see death, including Larkin, as an image of a ..sudden wait out of loss Round something nearly at an end The shut of the ambulance doors represents death closing in around life that is nearly at an end Larkins language when he describes death as something gives it namelessness life no longer has a source of meaning because Larkin sees death to be a stronger power which overpowers life. Death removes the uniqueness and identity of life everyone comes to the same end.And what cohered in it across The years, the unique random blend Of families and fashions there At least begin to loosen. Larkin could be referring to the mix of genes we have contagious over the years and that death can loosen this blend. This also shows that we are unreachable by anything but death.The traffic parts to let go by This shows the traditional respect for the sick and the dead. This respect has been built up through the fear of death. I know that this is true to me, personally and obviously to Larkin also.Larkin ends with a very daunting cadence Brings closer what is left to come, And dulls to length all we are. This cadence, to me, seems very dramatic. It brings into perspective the whole theme of mortality. Larkin makes us think of how fragile and short life is.Larkin must unfeignedly fear his own mortality. I suppose everyone fears death toa certain extent, but not many people would care to, or even dare to contemplate what happens after death in as much detail as Philip Larkin. These thoughts must frighten him and anything to do with death and mortality must frighten off him. Another poem, that is not scarce relevant to the question, but is also on the same theme as Ambulances is called The Building, the building being a hospital. Larkin describes the hospital as Higher than the handsomest hotel I think that this line is shoddy and some what ironic, it is imitationly attractive.It paints an almost positive picture of a hospital, but I feel that Larkin resents the height of it, after all, the bigger the building the bigger the capacity it can hold. The building is Like a great respire out of the last century. So this building is obviously a redbrick construction, a quite incongruous and disturbing building in its nineteenth century context. Larkins tone then changes to fear what keep drawing up At the entrance are not taxis and in the hall As well as creepers hangs a frightening smell. Larkin makes a reference to ambulances here also. He refers to them drawing up removed and the smell in the halls being frightening. He almost persomifies the smell by saying it hangs over them as if it were ready to pounce on any victim.He describes the waiting area and how the peoples faces are ill at ease(p) and resigned He obviously sees this as an area of tension evoking nervous reactions from those who await. He describes t hem as humans, caught On ground curiously neutral, homes and names Suddenly in abeyance. He is saying that in this building everyone is in the same boat. They are all Here to confess the something has gone wrong. This is similar to the idea of the confessionals in Ambulances. As I have said, this idea strikes unremitting fear. Each person is waiting to tell of how something has gone wrong with their bodies. Death is slowly violating them.It must have been an error of a serious sort, For see how many floors it need He is amazed by the size of the building, or perhaps even scared by the size of the need for this building. After all men like to covet wealth but the need for this place is so great that the expense is necessary.and how much money goes in trying to remediate it As a man is wheeled by in old ward clothes the people all turn quiet, another setting of death that was also shown in Ambulances. The people fear their mortality when they see death creep up on others. Larkin al so relates to us how trap he feels in the hospital and how distant the outside seems.Far past these doors are room, and rooms past those And more rooms yet, each one further off And harder to return from The distance between the outside and the rooms within the hospital seems greater than any physical distance, the freedom of the outside out to the car park, free seems to be slipping away like time, into the past, like a cherished memory outside seems old sufficient.His desperation for this freedom is so immense that he even plots, in his mind, the route he took to the hospital. He states that we are lulled into a false sense of security and fears that he may never get out.a trace dream to which we are lulled But wake from separately We are lulled into this false sense of security, this dream that we wake from separately, isolated and alone. He seems to commiseration those who, without realizing it, may have to stay for a longer period than they think, they amount the unseen co ngregationsOld, young crude facts of the only coin this place accepts The only way of being accommodated here is to be sick. His attitude of inevitable death is shown again All know they are going to die non yet, perhaps not here, but in the end, And somewhere like this. He then goes on to describe life as a driblet we climb towards death and how death cannot be overcome. We may try to light up the dark by bringing gifts, but they are merely inefficient gestures because death is so inevitable and final.Larkins attitude to death, here, sees it as completely negative, we also see this view in his poem The Explosion, where Larkin takes the nervous strain of a third person, describing an incident which claims the lives of several miners in a rustic community. Here, Larkin takes the role of a narrator and in this poem his view of death is more sanguine than it is in other poems. He does not extract thoughts and feelings as much and I feel this shows how impersonal death really is . The poem has three distinct sections before the ebullition, the moment of the explosion and its aftermath. The first linearouses a feeling of expectation On the day of the explosion We know that from the beginning of this poem that the explosion, and therefore death, is imminent. There is also a hint of Kinship that Larkin may have held for the men in the pits.He makes the men seem real by talking about Fathers, brothers, nicknames, laughter which makes the reader feel the humanity of the men and therefore sympathise with them. These men were ordinary people with their own fears, even a fear of death. Even though these characters were killed in the explosion Larkin has tinged the ending of the poem with hope, because for an instant the love between the dead and their love ones was so strong that it overcame death itself, allowing the loved one to see each other one last time.Wives power saw men of the explosion Larkin strangely endorses the idea of an afterlife even though he wa s an atheist. The Explosion ends on an optimistic note. The final line tells us of how one of the dead miners shows The eggs unbroken. These eggs are a symbol telling us not to lose hope, for even though we may die, nature and life will always carry on. It is set apart from the rest of the poem and can therefore be seen as a climax.So far, 1 have looked at Larkins dread, fear, quirk and overall negative reaction to death. I think it is possible that Larkin may have also found a somewhat positive and redeeming aspect of death in his poem An Arundel Tomb. This poem tells of a dead earl and his wife the countess who were buried together in a grave. Their tomb has become, through time, a tourist attraction because of the great likenesses formed from mark of their bodies. Larkin, again with his keen observational eye, looks upon statues and is shocked to find proof of hope and positivity.It meets his left hand gauntlet, still Clasped empty in the other,. and One sees, with a sharp tend er shock, His hand withdrawn holding her hand. This chivalrous tidy sum surprisingly hits a tender chord with Larkin, this is surprising due to his predominantly pessimistic views. Larkin also realises that the times of chivalry, knighthood and love are gone. Their love in this time has almost been changed to an untruth, yet is still has prevailed and lasted through time.Larkin looks at these deaths positively because he says, and to prove our Almost instinct, almost true What will run short of us is love. Larkin takes comfort in this as it reconciles and contrasts to his view that nothing exists after death. He previously described death as, An endless meaningless. Through sounding at these poems, I found that throughout Larkins life, he attempt and tried to find out what death was and what lay beyond it. Most of the time, we find that Larkin had a genuine fear of death, and he could not possibly surmise what lay beyond it. This could be due to his lack of assent and spirit uality.For this reason I chose An Arundel Tomb, so as to show that Larkin explicit some hope in death, love was the redeeming feature. Larkin discovered something in those statues that did go beyond death, and this is why he expressed it so attractively in his last line What will survive of us is love. Larkins poetry almost paths a journey he took through his life in discovering the truth about death. John Carey said that Fear of death runs through the poems, and may seem irreconcilable with Larkins poised realism. I have found that Larkins poetry is indeed interwoven with death throughout. This may be the case, but I also believe that Larkin found something redeeming in An Arundel Tomb and that all of his works referring to death, were steps towards his own reconciliation with death.