Philip Larkin's Use Of 'Tone In Ambulances'

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Tone is the speaker’s attitude toward a certain subject. Tone is generally conveyed through the speaker’s word choice to create a specific atmosphere for the audience. In “Ambulances,” Philip Larkin uses his choice of words to exemplify the hollowness of life while looking death straight in the eye. The title, “Ambulances,” emblematizes death. Larkin uses language that is straightforward and creates a bleak, depressing mood for his audience. He uses the simile, “closed like confessionals,” to represent the ill submitting him or herself to God (line 1). The speaker contrast the silence of death with the “loud noons of cities” (line 2). He symbolizes the color of the ambulance to the stages of life: “light” represents infancy, “glossy” symbolizes

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