PHILIP LARKIN USE OF IRONY

Irony is one of the most conspicuous features of the poetry of Larkin. Irony arises from contrast,
generally a contrast between the apparent meaning of a word or a line or a passage or a whole
poem and the writers actual, intended meaning. Irony may be used to heighten a tragic effect or
to produce a comic effect. Larkin makes a comic use of irony, even though there is almost no
irony in his serious poems which are characterized by a gloomy and pessimistic outlook. In many
cases, Larkin employs irony to poke fun at himself. Of course, he makes use of irony to mock at
the objectionable things which are taking place in his country; but even so he shows a marked
tendency to mock at himself.
The Use of Irony in Church Going
Church Going is a poem in which Larkin employs irony to mock at an established institution,
namely the Church, even though, the poem ends with a very serious stanza having a profound
significance. There is irony behind the very title of this poem. Apparently the title refers to
peoples custom of going to church on Sundays to offer prayers, and also of going to church on
special occasions such as a marriage or a birth or a death. But the title also refers to the decline
of the Church, and the Church departing altogether from the lives of the people. Then the poet
speaks ironically about his reverence for the church when he says that, being hatless, he took off
his cycle-clips in awkward reverence before entering the church. He also employs irony when he
utters the words: Here endeth instead of the word Amen. Then he speaks ironically when he
tells us that he signed the book and donated an Irish sixpence. There is irony also in his remark
that certain churches would become museums with their parchment, plate, and pyx on display.
Here the very alliteration adds to the irony. The poet then speaks ironically about superstitious
women visiting churches in future to seek remedies for the ills of their children. And he gives an
ironical reply to his own question: what would remain when disbelief has gone? Next, he speaks
ironically about the kind of people who might continue to visit the churches even after a general
loss of faith in the country; and he speaks ironically about the last visitor who might represent
Larkin himself and his character as a bored and uninformed man feeling inclined to visit a
church despite his loss of faith.
The Use of Irony in Mr. Bleaney

Irony pervades the whole poem called Mr. Bleaney. The room in which Mr. Bleaney dwelt was
very shabby, and the view from its window was shabby also. This shabbiness has been described
in the poem in an ironical vein. Then the poet lies down on the bed where Mr. Bleaney used to
lie, and he snuffs his cigarettes on the same saucer (or ash-tray) which Mr. Bleaney was in the
habit of using for that purpose. Next, the poet speaks ironically about the blaring radio-set which
he describes as the jabbering set. In order to drown the noise coming from the radio-set, the
poet stuffs his ears with cotton. Then the poet speaks ironically about Mr. Bleaneys going to
stay with some folk in Frinton to spend his summer holidays. Finally, the poet speaks ironically
about Mr. Bleaneys feelings about this room, and Mr. Bleaneys grinning at the thought that this
room was his home. But Larkin ends the poem with a very serious and instructive remark which
does not have the least touch of irony in it. This poem is an ironical portrayal of Mr. Bleaney but,
at the same time, the poet portrays himself in an ironical manner, partly by indicating the
resemblance between himself and Mr. Bleaney, and partly by bringing to our notice the wide
difference between himself and Mr. Bleaneythe intellectual man and the man who earned his
living by manual work.
An Analysis of the Themes of Death, Decline and Disappointment in Philip Larkins Poetry
.Philip Larkin was an English Poet and Novelist. He studied English Literature and English
Language in Oxford University, graduating in 1943 with a first degree in the subjects.
Throughout his poetic career, his bleak outlook on human life has been an essence of his poetic
stance. Human life and its predicament and the disappointment and disillusionment have been
the recurring motifs of his poetry. Moreover, Larkins agnostic approach has played a pivotal
role in shaping his personality and poetry simultaneously. He published his first book of poetry
'The North Ship' in 1945, and rose to prominence in 1955 after the publication of his second
collection of poems 'The Less Deceived'. He was most influenced by Thomas Hardy, W.B Yeats
and W.H Auden.
Although being born after the First World War, Larkin had experienced the Second World War,
and had attempted to enlist, however was deemed unfit after a medical examination. Instead he
took up work as a librarian in Wellington, it was during this time that he began producing several
of his poems, and arranging some into collections.
Larkins Agnostic Approach
The age of Larkin was an age of disaster and chaos on a social and moral level all over the
world. The flames of Second World War were still burning in the late nineteen-fifties and there
was a decline in the values cherished by societies. People had seen much destruction in the wake
of first and second world wars and they had started raising questions about the existence of God.
That was a scenario where Philip Larkin was born and brought up. No wonder he gives the run
around to God, religion and religious creeds. In spite of this non-sentimental and agnostic
approach, he has earned a reputation of a great poet of his time as he deals with the stark and
harsh realities of his time with great realism. In fact, it is his non-romantic approach towards the
precarious conditions of life that has given his poetry a long lasting popularity. As a poet, he has
a great command over his emotions that doesnt let him romanticize human life in any capacity
and enables him to capture the chaos and decline of human life on social and religious levels.
The Religious, Social and Political Context of Larkins Poetry
Larkin was not a prolific writer and he published just four major collections of his poetry, which
he did so with long intervals. But even with this limited writing legacy, he has been successful in
leaving an indelible mark on his poetic era. His first collection The North Ship was published
in 1945; The Less Deceived in 1955; The Whitsun Weddings in 1964 and The High
Windows in 1974. From the very first to the last collection, a sense of alienation, detachment
and disappointment prevails very strongly.
Church Going
Larkin has composed his poetry in the context of his temperament and of his personal views on
life, religion, and religious dogmas. He shares his thoughts about God, religion and the existing
scenario of religious beliefs of different classes of society in one of his poems, Church Going
in a realistic manner. His poem Church Going chronicles the account of that time, when people
had become suspicious of the existence of God and religion. Larkins sarcasm is seen from the
very first line of the poem, Once I am sure theres nothing going on I step inside, letting the door
thud shut. Another church: matting, seats, and stone, And little books, sprawlings of flowers, cut
For Sunday, brownish now; some brass and stuff Up at the holy end; the small neat organ; And a
tense, musty, unignorable silence, Brewed God knows how long. Hatless, I take off My cycle-
clips in awkward reverence, On a surface level, this poem makes fun of the church going
tradition, but on a deeper level, Larkin points out the dilapidation of a church, as peoples
religious credibility also was a victim of dilapidation. There was a time of general decline in the
attendance of churches as churches were no longer able to attract all people towards religion.
Impact of Social and Political Atmosphere
Deep and profound is the influence of the social and political atmosphere of his time on Larkins
poetry. Larkins realistic approach towards his time makes him write what he has written. We
can see the true portrait of the post-war England in Larkins collection of poetry, orit can be said
that his poetry is greatly reinforced by the cataclysmic scenario of post-war England.
Grass
Larkins poem At Grass is one of his great poems, where Larkin describes the situation
symbolically and connects his main theme with the current awkward situation of the post-war
England. The retirement of some horses from the horse-race and their idle life after the
retirement symbolized Britains loss of power and glory. Critics have rated this poem as one the
most popular poems of post-war Britain. This poem expresses much more in a sympathetic way
to convey the elegiac mood of that time, when Britain was facing the aftermath of the Second
World War. At Grass, is according to an eminent critic, an essentially English poem. Its
Englishness is to be found not merely in its memories of cups and stakes and handicaps, but
also in the modified mood of the pastoral convention. (Chapter 1, Page 7)This poem is enriched
with eighteenth century pastoral convention and the elegiac tone simultaneously as the poem
asks the wistful question. Do memories plague their ears like flies?
Differences of Class and Culture in Larkins Poems
Larkins poetry is filled with themes and images portraying the changed social climate of his era.
Besides giving plenty of space to his pessimistic and agnostic approach, he delineates a crystal
clear picture of his society where the differences of class and culture emerge from the
advancement of the industrial revolution. The volume The Whitsun Weddings (1964) reflects
the circumstances, in the late nineteen-fifties, when class and culture conflicts were coming into
vogue. In this perspective, Larkin couldnt keep himself detached from the changing atmosphere.
His poem Here points out the change in the life style of people, who were gradually getting
attracted towards the material comforts of life, to the exclusion of the finer things of life. We
come across the following lines in Here. Cheap suits, red kitchen-ware, sharp shoes, iced
lollies, electric mixers, toasters, washers, driers
Mr. Bleany
The same scenario runs through another one of his famous poems, Mr. Bleany, where he
presents the sketch of a person, named Bleany, who is leading a sub-standard life in his
apartment. Mr. Bleany is a lonely person, isolated from others; there is nothing neither charming
nor attractive in his life and in his apartment. Apparently, this poem tells the story of Mr.
Bleany,a very boring person. But Larkin describes very realistically the truth of our social life,
wherein a persons character is judged by his style of living. There are no digressions or
superfluities in the poem, but just a character-portrait with a spontaneous flow of thought, very
vividly rendered.
Pessimism in Afternoons
Another poem Afternoons from this volume has been written with the same approach, which
records the changing social and cultural climate of the late 1950s and early 1960s in an
extraordinary way. The climate is depicted by the references to the new re-creation ground, to
husbands in skilled trades, to an estate full of washing, to the albums lettered Our
Weddinglying near the television.
These phrases undoubtedly indicate the changes, which had begun to take place in the social life
of England at the time this poem was written. The pessimism of this poem is obvious as the
young couple in this poem find that something is pushing them to the side of their own lives.
One thing is very certain that Larkins poetry is encompassed with the same kind of
dissatisfaction, which goes parallel even in his poems where he writes about the social and
cultural changes. This dissatisfaction is part and parcel of Larkins poetic ability so much so that
he does only portray the inability and incapacity of human life that seem inevitable to human
existence.
The Inevitability of Death for All Classes of Society
Larkins poetry is greatly overwhelmed by one single thought and that is death, which eventually
leads the human mind to decline and deprivation. In this case, critics are unanimous in calling
him, the saddest heart of the post-war super market. His pessimistic approach is deeply rooted
in the isolation, alienation, and predicament of human life that he saw around him. He does not
describe directly the massacre and destruction of the Second World War, which played havoc
with human beings, but he crafts his poems in such a way that the pain, suffering and
helplessness of a man can be felt in the face of these destructive forces. Larkin has been at his
best with this single theme of death, which he considers the ultimate destruction for all classes of
society, regardless of age, race, sex, color, and religion.
Nothing to be Said
Larkins poem Nothing to be Said implies that life at all levels and for every single person is
ultimately the same, because all life inevitably ends in death. From this point of view, the lives
of cobble-close families in mill-towns are really not different from the lives of the nomads
among stones or from those of small-saturated tribes. (Chapter 1, Page 13) The stubborn and
straight fact of death seems to darken every aspect of human life and activities. Dockery and
Son is written in the context of the same idea, where Larkin compares his bachelor life with his
friends married life, who has to die even he is married and has a son. Hence, it doesnt matter
whether a person is a bachelor or is married, since both are destined to die in the long run.
Impossibility of Escaping from Disease: Ambulances
In the Ambulances the impossibility of escaping from disease and death has been captured with
great sensitivity. With his utterly non-sentimental approach, Larkin has a great capacity to touch
on the sensitive issues of human life. He emphasizes the omnipresence of death in the gloomy
line, All streets in time are visited .Another poem Aubade conveys the same thought and
proves that nothing in the world is permanent except death; therefore, nothing can defeat and
mitigate the horror or permanence of death. Larkins melancholic approach towards life is very
well understood, when he talks about death that is inseparable to man. He is perfectly realistic in
creating an atmosphere of pathos by rendering vivid pictures in his death-obsessed poems. It
seems that Larkin is able to arrive at the comprehensive conclusion that all efforts of human
beings to live life better and to make life better end in fiasco, especially with the inexorable
approach of death. By applying his pragmatic approach throughout his poetry, Larkin constructs
a clear-cut paradigm of human life; where death does not distinguish between the haves and have
nots.
Larkins Attitude in his Love Poems
Again we see that Larkins unromantic and non-sentimental attitude gives a unique quality to his
love poems. He is realistic at heart and he wants to see things clearly and truthfully. Intentionally
and deliberately, he does avoid deceptions and through his perceptions, he presents the facts as
they actually exist. Even his love poems describe an utterly unromantic view of human life in the
backdrop of the sexual act, which is generally believed to bring about fulfillment and sexual
relief.
Sexual Act A Deception: Places, Loved Ones, If, My Darling
In Larkins poems, the sexual act is altogether a deception and a sense of dissatisfaction and
hopelessness seems to penetrate everything with a feeling of emptiness. In the poem, Places,
Loved Ones, for instance, the speaker admits with a mixture of disappointment and futility that
he has never met that special person, who could claim everything he owns. (Chapter1, Page
10)Similarly, the speaker in the poem, If, My Darling, insists upon his own realistic judgment
of lifes deficiencies and any idealization of womanhood is carefully avoided. Larkins so-called
love poetry, devoid of any romantic passions and emotions by focusing on the peripheral issues
of human life reveals tragic aspects and tragedies that have been inseparable to man, since time
immemorial. This has been Larkins approach that altogether shuns superficial treatment of
human suffering and presents pathetic, realistic pictures of human life.
Focus on Free Sex
One notable thing is the selection of words by Larkin in his sexual poems that indicates his
attitude towards free sex. He dares to show his thinking through the use of such apt words
whenever he wants. For instance, in the poem Annus Mirabilis, he asserts, Sexual Intercourse
began In nineteen sixty-three(Which was rather late for me)Between the end of the Chatterley
ban And the Beatles first L.P Larkins choice of words in this poem is also the mirror of the
society of England, where sexual freedom had started in 60s and had not remained a taboo any
longer
.Marriages
In his poem Marriages his manner of dealing with the topic is somewhat cynical but realistic as
he says that marriage in most of the cases is a matter of accepting an undesirable and unwanted
partner. In this case, he attributes marriage to the loss of ones freedom and as a result a man gets
nothing but boredom and feels like a failure. It can be said that Larkins love poetry threatens the
independence of the individual .Larkins cynical and realistic point of view does not let him
idealize relationship, marriage, sex, and sexual satisfaction; rather, he creates an atmosphere of
disappointment and disillusionment. In Larkins opinion, sexual fulfillment and erotic passion
are mere deception and nothing else. Sexual desire is also the subject of the poem Dry Point.
Here the physical experience is a struggle that is presented accompanied by fear and panic, and
the aftermath is one of disappointment and disillusionment. In a nutshell, an element of
disenchantment escorts his love poetry all the way to the final destination and that destination is
nothing but a mirage.
Philip Larkin And The Movement
The Movement arose in the mid 1950s around the works and thoughts of three young men: Philip
Larkin, Kingsley Amis and John Wain. In October 1954, the first announcement of this new
trend in poetry appeared in The Spectator. It called itself The Movement. The writers or poets
belonging to the movement are many: Elizabeth Tennings, John Hotlaways, Thom Guvn, P.J.
Enright, Ponald Davie and Robert Conquest under who see dictorship The New Lines anthology
appeared in 1956 to include all the names previously mentioned along with Larkin, Amis and
Wain. They all represented an intellectual reaction against the Neo-romantic of the 1940s
especially Dylan Thomas. They demanded that intelligence and intelligibility should be regarded
as essential virtues in poetry, Robert Conquest called for a renewed attention to the necessary
intellectual component in poetry viewed from a common sense stand point. The great
theoretical constructs and the agglomeration of unconscious commands were to be rejected in
favor of reverence for the real person or event and the conventional English norms, the iambic
pentameter or tetrameter line. The poetry of the Movement was intelligent, Knowledgeable,
polished and reactionary against the historical one of war literature and against the faults of such
poets as Dylan Thomas whom Conquest accused of destroying the taste of the poetry reading
public and insiting on the debilitating theory that poetry must be metaphorical. Also Conquest,
in his articles summarized the qualities of the poetry of the Movement. In one sense, indeed, the
standpoint is not new, but merely the restoration of a sound and fruitful attitude to poetry, of
principle, that poetry is written by and the whole, man, intellect, emotion, senses and all ...It is
free from both mystical and logical compulsions, and like modern philosophy is empirical in its
attitude to all that comes. Of all the poets of the Movement, it was Philip Larkin who gained
the celebration and admiration of Robert Conquest who championed him and considered him an
incarnation of all the principles of the Movement and an outstanding epitome of what has been
stated above. Likewise, A. Alvarez in The New Poetry wrote that the great moderns, the poets
of the Movement experimented not just to make it new formally, but to open poetry up to new
areas of experience. What they wrote was academic-administrative verse, polite, efficient,
....etc.. Alvarez stated that the outset of Larkins poem Church Going summarizes all the features
and the pieties of the poets of the Movement. Once I am sure theres nothing going on I step
inside, letting the door thud shut Another church; matting, seats, and ston.
.................................................Hatless, I take off May cycle-clips in awkward reverence. The
poet in this image, appears to be shabby and not concerned with his appearance; poor-he has a
bike not a car: gauche but full of agnostic piety: underfed, underpaid, over taxed hopeless, bored
wry. The image of the post-war poet is utterly different from his predecessors. He is no longer a
super-human or a strange creature inspired, nor enclosed in his ivory tower. On the contrary he
is just like the man next door, in fact, he is probably the man next door. Philip Larkin is truly a
man next door as a poet and as a man too. He began writing after the World War II, in the midst
of disillusionment and uncertainty, but he advocated the simple and clear notions rather than the
complex and vague ones. For this reason he rejected all the artificalities, vagueness, and
difficulties of the modern poetry. He refused what Pound and Eliot adhered in making modern
poetry difficult and highly symbolic, allusive and dependent on myths. Such poetry, Larkin
believed never covers life as it is. Poetry should be the poetry of every man, not of the
intellectual elite. The poet on the other hand, should be a neighbor to the reader who feels what
the reader feels. Poetry should please, not mystify the reader, and put him in an amaze.
Moreover, as a Movement poet, the does not trust the neo-romantic tendency of the 1940s which
was excessively sentimental and more concerned with the exploration subconscious mind. E. L.
Black tells us that the virtues, of Larkins poetry are clarity and elegance. Larkin has a reliable
instinct for orderly arrangement and a respect for formal perfection. His best poems are almost
all concerned with contemporary life in Britain, the life of towns and the suburbs. But, there is
also in category of his poems which looks back to a countryside where there is a good deal of
wind and rain, especially in his poems.His poems show a keen eyesight catching the minute
details of life which go unnoticed by others. He focuses on them and accurately describes them
with realistic views. He gives what might be called an accurate photography of what he sees.
The little details on which he concentrates do not confine him or limit his subject matter to
themselves only. They always serve as windows from which he can enter to wider English
themes that used to be frequent in the 1850s.The range of Larkins themes is too wide as Antony
Thawaite remarks. A list which includes innocence, the pathos, and grim, humour of experience,
the poignancy of the past, the change and renewal of nature, the dread of the future, death and all
that lead up to it and away from it .....etc. But his treatment of such a range of subject matter
runs from the concrete to the flat abstractions, lacking in the precise circumstantial figurativeness
and sensitive cadences. Larkin is also, as John Lucas described him, sad and nostalgic. He was
preoccupied with a sense of sadness. For him neither childhood nor love is an outlet to escape
from sadness: childhood was a forgotten boredom, and it is silly to expect much happiness from
love.
Philip Larkin 'MCMXIV'

The poem is presented in 4 Stanzas, each stanza depicting a different type of scenery
The entire poem is one whole sentence
In each stanza lines 4 and 8 are a rhyming couplet
STANZA 1
Those long uneven lines-
Standing as patiently (1)
As if they were stretched outside
The Oval or Villa Park,(2)
1:Larkin describes the long lines for enlistment as if they were long lines for a sporting event,
drawing the comparison of anxious and eager men wanting to enlist and anxious eager men
wanting to get into a sports game.
2:The Oval is a famous London Cricket Ground, and Villa park is a Birimingham football
ground. He often employed the traditional tools of poetry, rhyme, stanza and meter, to explore
the often uncomfortable or terrifying experiences thrust upon common people in the modern age.
Philip Larkin was born four years after the conclusion of the War. He composed poetry that
reflected the dreariness of postwar provincial England. The 'long uneven lines' are the men as
they line up to enlist. The Oval and Villa Park are both sporting venues for cricket and football,
and so it is ironic that the men are standing 'patiently' as if they are simply waiting to get inside;
this is symbolic of the overall attitude held by the men who wanted to enlist, because patriotic as
they were, they were unaware of the realities of war.
STANZA 2
The crowns of hats, the sun 1
On moustached archaic faces 2
3 Grinning as if it were all
An August Bank Holiday lark
1:This part of the stanza creates imagery of all the men, as if looking down on the crowd from
above and seeing many hats and their faces.
3:Larkin uses irony here, as the men are merry, and happily smiling, seemingly unaware of what
is to come.
The men are treating enlistment as if it were all part of the fun and games.
2:Archaic meaning very old, or old fashioned, which could be Larkin implying that the imagery
is from an older era and as the poem is tided in the style of a war memorial, the theme of
nostalgia, and idea of this being almost forgotten by now are explored throughout. One of the
possible interpretations of the word 'archaic' is that these faces belong to the men of the older
generation, who are also unaware of the harsh and brutal realities that the younger men will have
to face. However another interpretation is that this part of the stanza still revolves around the
men who are wanting to enlist, and that though they are 'grinning', they will soon miss and long
for days which they could take pleasure from, such as the ones during an 'August Bank Holiday'.
STANZA 3
And the (1) shut shops, the bleached (2)
Established names on the sunblinds,
The farthings and sovereigns (3)
1)The shops were either shut due to it being a bank holiday, or because of food shortages which
were common during the start of the war, as many people began buying food and storing it, so
shops were out of stock and forced to close.
Larkin uses sharp sibilance on the words 'Shut shops', as he changes the scene in this stanza.
2) Over time the names have been bleached lighter from being in the sun, a sign of wear and age
3)Farthings and Sovereigns were an old british form of coins, which would have been used
during 1914.
The references to old currency, and shop names being bleached by the sun, may be implying that
the war was in a time that is now forgotten, due to the poem being written in 1960 almost 40
years after 1914. This stanza explores aspects of the Homefront. It could be argued that the shops
are shut perhaps due to the shortage of food, as many people stashed food for later on - many
stores ran out of food at the start of August 1914. The 'children at play' gives the reader the
image of a very innocent aspect of childhood and youth. However, the dark clothes provides a
stark contrast, giving a sense of foreboding. The children could be seen as being symbolic of the
young men who were killed.
STANZA 4
And the dark-clothed children at play(1)
Called after kings and queens,(2)
The tin advertisements (3)
For cocoa and twist, and the pubs(4)
Wide open all day--
1:Dark-clothing were colours for mourning, contrasted with the innocence of children playing
this may be a type of foreboding for the death and mourning of the innocent young people,
almost still children, who are fighting unaware of what is truly to come
2:Names such as Albert, Victoria, George, children named after the Kings and Queens of
England, popular and sign of patriotism at the time
3:The tin advertisements being those of war propaganda, the poem highlighting aspects life on
the home front in 1914, when propaganda would have been highly used to motivate people to
enlist. The remainder of this stanza explores more aspects of the Homefront. The 'tin
advertisements' represent the propaganda that encouraged young men to enlist.
4:The pubs open as it was a bank holiday, this was also a time before pub licensing hours were
introduced, shortly after the war begun.
STANZA 5
And the countryside not caring:1
The place names all hazed over
2With flowering Grasses and fields
3Shadowing Domesday lines
Under wheat's restless silence;
The differently-dressed servants4
With tiny rooms in huge houses,
The dust behind limousines;
3:The countryside was not as much affected at the start of war, something which would soon
change, the place names are a reference to the Domesday land survey book by William The
Conqueror where places were named across the country and land given to the rich.
2:The idea of nature indifference to ma made catastrophes, as it carries on, like nothing has
changed
1:Soft sibilance between 'countryside' and 'caring' emphasizing the laid back effect, as everything
continues as normal.
4: An order which may change after the war, again highlighting life before the war with the
hierarchy of master and servant.Yet for now it remains normal, unaware. The countryside is
described as 'not caring' - this could be seen as a reference to nature's indifference to man-made
catastrophes (also seen in 'The Explosion'). The 'place-names' is a reference to the names that
certain areas and regions were given when William the Conqueror had the Domesday Book
written. The pubs being 'wide open all day' are a result of it being a Bank Holiday. However, this
is significant because it conveys a sense of jubilation and happiness, which was the general
feeling held by people due to the fact that they believed the War would be over by Christmas and
that the young men would be 'doing their bit' for their country.
STANZA 6
1Never such innocence,
Never before or since,
As changed itself to past
Without a word--the men2
Leaving the gardens tidy,
The thousands of marriages,3
Lasting a little while longer:
4Never such innocence5 again.
1:Implying the war changed everything, and the innocence was never restored, the unawareness
seen in the first stanza was perhaps the innocence lost during the war
2:Leaving their homes, normal lives and tidy gardens behind them, leaving everything as normal,
yet not expecting what is to come.
3:Marriages would only last a short while longer after many of the men who left would never
return. Although at this point, nobody expects the numbers to be as high as they were.
5:Repeating the first line of the stanza again for effect to leave the reader with the poets last line,
and the purpose of the poem, to remember.
The title of the poem is in roman numerals, standing for '1914' the year the first world war broke
out. It is in this style to be like a war memorial, and to stand for a time that is old and forgotten
as parts of the poem imply.
5:The 'Innocence' may also refer to the innocence of the youth and entire young generation that
fought and died in the war, and the effect that it left, how it would never be the same and it
would be difficult to recover from such huge losses.
The poem, written in 1960, post-world war one, and the title paired with the nostalgic style,
make the poem seem as if it is in reflection of 1914. This stanza explores the loss of innocence
experienced by the men as a result of the War. The innocence and happiness that is portrayed at
the beginning of the poem could be seen as having been taken away by the 'shadowing
Domesday' referenced to in the third stanza (the War being seen as 'Domesday'). The men were
leaving their tidy 'gardens', houses and homes to go to the 'untidiness' of War, unaware that they
would become 'tainted'. The 'thousands of marriages' represents the marriages that would soon
end as a result of the men who failed to return home. The poet's choice of the phrase 'Never such
innocence again' gives the reader the impression that Larkin is implying that such a horrific and
brutal event could never possibly happen again. But because 'MCMXIV' was published in 1964,
after World War Two (1939-1945), the line could be seen as being ironic. The 'differently-
dressed servants' could be seen as being a reference to the men who fought in the War, implying
that all of the men, regardless of their previous class and background, was a 'servant' to his
country. This is supported by the phrase 'differently-dressed'.
Each stanza consists of eight lines, yet only the fourth and eighth line in each stanza rhyme.
Therefore it could be argued that the poem's structure is not very rigid, due to the abundance of
lines that do not rhyme. The poet may have chosen to do this perhaps because he may have
wanted to have more freedom in his writing - without this restriction, it could be argued that the
poem is not forced - it is instead a very raw and real exploration of certain elements of the War.
Like much of Larkin's other poetry MCMXIV contains the clear, unadorned language
characterized by "The Movement" (who rejected the allusive language of other poets such as T.
S Elliot).
THEMES OF POEM
Attitudes to war - Larkin depicts the initial attitude to war, which by the time the poem was
written may have been forgotten. It was the positive attitude of the '
Grinning
' men in the lines which was, during 1914 the majority of the public's attitude towards the war
The poem also follows a nostalgic style, looking back at 1914 the year the war broke out, and
focuses on small details, which reflect a bigger picture, (e.g The children's names, the tins with
propaganda, The shut shops) As well as references to the old, and forgotten things, hence the
name of the poem being in Roman Numerals, for it to be a reminder of the innocence from
before the war, and even the extent of the severity of war,
'never before or since'.
'An age of innocence'- with repetition of the words 'innocence' , and the the imagery of ' Long
linesof happy and seemingly unaware men, can be seen as tragic as they volunteer for what was
for many, their own deaths, whilst it initially seemed like an adventure to them, alongisde the
concept of an entire young and innocent generation being lost.
In summary, MCMXIV focuses on the year 1914 the year of the outbreak of the First World
War, in August 1914. This setting for the poem is hinted at in Larkins reference to the August
Bank Holiday lark. The first stanza focuses on an old photograph depicting a group of men who
have just signed up to fight in the war, the long uneven lines denoting the old style of taking
photographs with people arranged into long rows. The expressions on the faces of these men
suggests they view the war as a lark or a game no different from a cricket match (the Oval)
or a football match (Villa Park). The time setting of 1914 is glimpsed in the broad brush-
strokes Larkin paints: the fact that the men are all wearing hats, and the fact that they sport
moustaches, after the fashion of the day. Even their faces look archaic, i.e. old-fashioned.
From this starting point, the second stanza then zooms out as so many of Philip Larkins poems
do to consider the wider context: the style of the shop fronts in those days, the old coins, the
children all having names like Victoria and Elizabeth and George and Edward, having been
named after kings and queens (no Britneys or Chardonnays back then), the pubs all being open
all day (licensing hours were only introduced under the Defence of the Realm Act during WWI).
The third stanza then leaves the world of the town behind and pans out yet further, to consider
the countryside, and the big country estates with their clear staff hierarchies (the servants being
dressed differently depending on their rank or position in the household): this is the pre-war
period that the first series of Downton Abbey would reflect, in more recent times. The reference
to Domesday lines takes us back to the Norman Conquest of 1066, and the Domesday Book,
that vast audit of English towns, cities, and villages undertaken under William the Conqueror.
What Larkin is suggesting here is nearly 1,000 years of unaltered English history and social
structures, all of which is about to be undermined and destroyed by the First World War.
The final stanza forms a sort of conclusion to the poem, with Larkin pondering the change
wrought by the war. The innocent way of life embodied by the pre-war world, and outlined
earlier in MCMXIV, has gone forever. Larkin ends with a couple of examples which are
ambiguously phrased. The many men leaving the gardens tidy suggests not only the idea that
before the war men seemed to be in touch with the land in a more intimate way, but also the
notion of these men leaving their gardens behind for the very different terrain of the Western
Front, many of them never to return. The mention of the marriages lasting a little while longer
similarly houses two meanings: marriages lasted longer in those days because divorce was less
common and people were more traditional in their approach to marriage, but all of these
marriages were, of course, literally to last only a little while longer until the husbands were
killed in the conflict.
Larkins poem is organised into four eight-line stanzas, with rhymes on the fourth and eighth line
of each stanza. But even in a poem that is more unrhymed than rhymed, Larkins line endings
take on a curious pattern. 14 of the 32 lines end on a plural, including men in the final stanza,
suggesting how widespread the change and the loss of life was.
MCMXIV might be viewed as a war poem, but a war poem which analyses and explores the
impact of the war from a civilian perspective (Larkin was called up to fight in the next world
war, WWII, while studying at Oxford, but was excused owing to poor eyesight), and from the
vantage-point of nearly 50 years on. Its a studied analysis, not necessarily of a golden pre-war
period, but of an attitude to the past which we are all prey to: the notion that the past was always
better and more innocent.
AMBULANCES Philip Larkin
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.
Stanza 1 The ambulances symbolise death. They are closed and inscrutable giving back none of
the glances they absorb; like a corpse. They are private, secretive, silent like confessionals.
They cause agitation in people who glance nervously at them hoping that their time has not
come. The randomness of death is suggested by They come to rest at any kerb Its inevitability
is expressed in,all streets in time are visited.
Stanza 2 Note Larkins superb eye for significant detail as he points out the contrast between the
zest and energy of living children strewn on roads women....past smells of different
dinners... and the horror of its opposite A wild white face.. as the patient is carried away from
the flow of normality to be stowed like some dead thing in the ambulance. The red of the
blankets, the white of the face are colours of distress.
Stanza 3 A reflective stanza after the vivid details of the first two. The poet is moved to think
that death is our common fate that has the power to render life meaningless. All our busy
concerns, all our cooking, our play is just a way of filling time until death takes us away to
empty nothingness; And sense the solving emptiness That lies just under all we do. This
thought which we put out of our minds comes to us without any softening theology And for a
second (we) get it whole. So permanent and blank and true As the ambulance pulls away,
Larkin suggests that peoples expression of sympathy at the patients plight is also an expression
of our common vulnerability to sickness and death.

Stanza 4 and 5 Now Larkin thinks of the dying patient and the sadness in her heart as she
experiences the sudden shut of loss Round something nearly at an end. He sympathizes with
her fear. He reflects on the loss that death will bring; how it will destroy this unique person the
unique random blend of families and fashions... and loosens her from her family and identity
- all that really matters to us as people. The tremendous isolation of being in an ambulance as she
faces death Far from the exchange of love to lie Unreachable inside a room (i.e. the
ambulance) brings out Larkins deep sympathy for the victim. This sympathy is for a real person.
But as with most poems by Larkin, he is able to take a particular experience, a particular
circumstance and find a general truth in it. Here, the suffering of the victim become the model
for all life lived, all death experienced. The model is bleak, however. Living according to this
model is just the rush towards death, brings closer what is left to come and the effect of this
realization is to make life seem a lonely and bleak experience robbed of its joyful immediacy its
pleasant physicality, And dulls to distance all we are. We are left isolated by the experience,
distanced from ourselves.