Philip Larkin

Paper Summary:

By discussing several of Philip Larkin's poems, the paper shows the poet's contempt and dislike for modern life. The poems analyzed include ?MCMXIV?, in which Larkin expresses a wistful nostalgia for a past which seems no longer to belong to us. It also discusses ?Nothing To Be Said?, in which Larkin conveys his contempt for people who waste their lives and who reach the end having achieved little. The paper also analyzes the poem, "Here".

From the Paper:

""Here" is a poem which shows Larkin drawn towards conditions of emptiness, away from the hustle and bustle of people in everyday life. The poem describes a journey to the north-east coast of England near Hull, where Larkin lived. While the journey is through a recognisably contemporary England, it is at the same time an imaginative flight away from modern urban materialism towards a vision of solitary freedom. The repeated conjunctions that come at the beginnings of lines create a surging, seemingly irresistible movement towards the sea at the poem's conclusion. "The piled gold clouds" and other such images have a luminous, almost other-worldly significance to be associated with the values of solitude.?

More papers on Philip Larkin:

• Analytical Essay # 39298 : "Philip Larkin and Thomas Hardy"
• Poem Review # 34633 : "Larkin's Poems of Death"
• Analytical Essay # 50617 : "Deconstruction and "Church Going"

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