Philip Larkin’s The Whitsun Weddings
As I was reading Philip Larkin’s "The Whitsun Weddings," I was initially struck by the difference between his use of language and the language used by many of the poets we read earlier in the course. The difference between the language of the two W.B. Yeats poems we wrote about previously and this poem by Larkin was particularly striking. Of course, the use of language changed slowly, with each poet we have read between Yeats and Larkin becoming less like the former and more like the latter. But, I suppose I noticed it more in this poem because I was paying more attention to detail in order to comment on the poem.
The speaker of this poem is on a train headed south to London for a long weekend, and begins his/her journey on a Saturday afternoon. It is a late spring or even early summer day, as it is seven weeks after Easter (fn. 1061). Initially, the content of the poem is rather simple, but the language and description are quite rich. Larkin appeals to four of the five senses and makes his reader feel as if they are on the train with the speaker. As I read the poem, I felt like I could hear the train pull out of the station and feel the heat of the cushions under my legs. Then I was seeing the "blinding windscreens" and smelling the "fish-dock". As the poem and the rich description continued, I was then looking at "[c]anals with floatings of industrial froth" and...
... middle of paper ...
...es ahead of them. On the other hand, the line "there swelled / A sense of falling" could be describing their lingering doubts that maybe their families were right and they are making a mistake.
Since the poem ends on that more somber note of "a sense of falling," we leave the poem feeling that the ending will not be happy for these newly married couples. We are full of the beauty of the land as described by the speaker, as well as the dreariness of the future as the people in the poem see it. What started out as a fairly upbeat and happy poem leaves you with a sense of despair and impending doom.
Works Cited
Urdang, Laurence, ed. The American Century Dictionary. New York: Oxford UP, 1995.
In all poems the theme of Disappointment in love is seen throughout. Duffy focuses on the pain, despair and acrimony that love can bring, whereas Larkin focuses on the dissatisfaction before, during, and after a romantic relationship. Both Duffy and Larkin differ in tone. Duffy takes a more aggressive and dark stance to portray what love can do to a person after a disappointing love life. Duffy also uses this sinister and aggressive stance to try and convey sympathy for the persona from the audience in ‘Never Go Back’ and ‘Havisham’ Whereas Larkin conveys his discontent in love through his nonchalant and dismissive tone, but still concealing the pain that has been brought by love in ‘Wild Oats’ and ‘Talking in bed’.
As we can gather from the examples, Gwen Harwood uses language to create dynamic backgrounds and images to subtly delineate the changes experienced by the persona in the poems. Sometimes the characters themselves are not aware of these changes but the readers are able to appreciate them with the aid of skill Harwood posses in using language to such great measures.
Plath in Ariel and Larkin in The Whitsun Weddings both explore ideas about love and relationships. The Whitsun Weddings explores the theme of love and relationships by capturing the journey that takes place prior to marriage; the poem was written about Larkin’s observation of marriage parties on whit Sunday (now known as May Day) which was a public holiday and was traditionally the day on which people would get married. The Whitsun Weddings takes on a somewhat cynical tone which is emblematic of Larkin’s negative views regarding marriage and long term relationships. The Applicant by Plath presents the reader with a critique of marriage by depicting the selection process that men and women alike have to go through when it comes to marriage. In the 60’s, marriage was often something that was expected of many individuals and those who did not comply with these views would be often be stigmatised and women were often subjected to this stigma during a time that patriarchy was at its peak. Both The Applicant and The Whitsun Weddings present marriage as a societal norm and a process that is...
For most students, poetry is a complex subject that we all wish to avoid. Much effort is needed to understand the vague imagery and complicated word play to comprehend the overall message the poet is trying to portray. Ultimately, in the end, we fail to actually enjoy the piece because we are too focus on analyzing everything in the poem. Billy Collins “Introduction to Poetry,” criticized this need to torture a poem for its meaning when in fact it should be a slow but enjoyable process to go through. Due to this, he illustrates way in which poetry should be tackled. He was able to convey his idea through the usage of metaphor and imagery as we all as the structure of the poem .
As one of the fastest growing trends in modern education and with more members than ever before, it is no wonder that homeschooling has received recent media coverage (Swartout-Corbeil; Saba and Gattis 1, National Household Education Surveys Program 1). However, many people are unsure about the reality of homeschooling (Saba and Gattis XI). Some of its critics show concerns over its claimed negative effects on a child’s ability to socialize with other children, while some were doubtful of its academic effectiveness (Saba and Gattis 5; Pitman). On the other hand, homeschoolers and their supporters say that it offers greater academic benefits than conventional schooling, and does not deprive a child socially either (Saba and Gattis 2; Dorian and Tyler 46). But amidst all this talk, what really are the effects of homeschooling on a child, on both the academic and social levels?
Figurative language allows poets and writers alike to exaggerate or alter specific linguistic points of interest. The two poets that I shall be looking at for this discourse are Wilfred Owen who is widely acknowledged for his war poetry using one of his most popular works Anthem For Doomed Youth and Elizabeth Jennings One Flesh. Jennings poetry is known for its spiritual connotations and emotional intensity. The two poems contain a common theme ‘the loss of youth’ but it’s only by examining the use of figurative language, that we are able to gain an understanding of the various connotations.
The first paragraph builds a mental image of the person reading this poem of a vessel that just returned from a long journey with a reward won from an enemy. They are returning home to a harbor filled with family, friends, and random citizens with bells ringing very loudly. Everyone on the harbor has their eyes fixed on the ship. Although, the misfortune of the sea dog who found the Captain’s corpse bleeding, and fallen lifeless. The next passage gives you the sensory of the sailor trying to pull the Captain’s lifeless corpse off the floor as though he’s still convinced the captain is still alive. The flag is flying in the air, the bugles play for him, and the crowd is throwing flowers and ribbon tied wreaths up in the air. The mass of people
...s despair in accepting that his and his lover's fate was to grow "As weary-hearted as that hollow moon" (38). The fact that this line, and not a happy, upbeat ending, closes the poem further emphasizes the tragedy.
The first line is almost an oxymoron in itself describing the ‘sombre mountains’ next to ‘a faint lost ribbon of rainbow.’ The atmosphere through out the whole poem is sombre like the mountains, yet through it all lies the rainbow, which in biblical terms refers to the rainbow in Noah’s Arc which was a symbol of hope, showing that there is also hope for the couple in the poem.
The poem is launched by a protracted introduction during which the speaker indulges in descriptions of landscape and local color, deferring until the fifth stanza the substantive statement regarding what is happening to whom: "a bus journeys west." This initial postponement and the leisurely accumulation of apparently trivial but realistic detail contribute to the atmospheric build-up heralding the unique occurrence of the journey. That event will take place as late as the middle of the twenty-second stanza, in the last third of the text. It is only in retrospect that one realizes the full import of that happening, and it is only with the last line of the final stanza that the reader gains the necessary distance to grasp entirely the functional role of the earlier descriptive parts.
In today’s American society, quality education is important for one to succeed. Without proper education, a person will find it extremely difficult to apply for college, a job, or to pursue his or her dream. Typically when Americans think of education, public education is the first to come to mind. Public education has been around for centuries and is provided to most children throughout the United States. Due to this fact, public education has been the go to education source for years. Though, this trend is slowly changing with many parents deciding to home school their children instead. Many factors are the cause for this issue, but the common arguments arise from a certain few. For students, public school provides many opportunities ranging from social connections, school sports, and the exposure to teachers who are experts in their fields. But homeschooling is often superior because it offers additional time for students to participate in various extracurricular activities and community service, allows for more individual attention, personal character development, and it offers less exposure to discrimination that is received in the public school environment.
All children in America have the right to a quality education. Most students receive that education through conventional means, going to a public or private school. There is another option for today's children, home schooling. Home schooling is a controversial issue. While it does have its benefits, some people believe it has too many downfalls to be an effective method of education. In this paper, topics such as academic impact, social impact, and parental opinions of home schooling will be discussed.
Morality can be based on consciousness and various perspectives but morals, regardless of distinct cultures, have a core fundamental of comprehending what is right and wrong. By this, we are held to an obligation to assist those in need. This means that we should feel obligated to do whatever it is within our might to aid situations that need assistance.
The number of homeschooling families has been steadily increasing over the past several years, but is it really a better alternative to public schooling? This disagreement over schooling systems has been the subject of the ongoing debate covered in many journals, magazines, and articles. Many parents and families believe that it is because most homeschoolers argue that the curriculum in public school is not taught well enough, but those who support public school argue the opposite. Those who are in favor of public schooling argue that the standard curriculum is not covered adequately in home education. Parents are also concerned with the possibility of social isolation that comes with homeschooling. The majority
Firstly he uses a sharp contrast in his tone. This is particularly evident in his poem 'September 1913'. He starts by attacking the greedy uncultured people of Ireland, especially the shopkeepers who “add the halfpence to the pence”. He uses adjectives such as “greasy” and “shivering” to help portray his feelings of disgust and vexation. This gives the stanza a reproachful tone. At the end of the stanza he introduces the refrain: