Afternoons Flashcards
Who was the poet and when was he born and when did he die?
Philip Larkin (1922-1985)
CONTEXT
Why was he famous in the 20th Century?
Because he looked at tiny aspects of life - simplicity and directness
STRUTURE
What type of structure is Afternoons and what is the effect?
- tryptic structure
- intended to present different perspectives on the summer
ANALYSIS
“setting free their children” What is the device and what does it suggest?
Metaphor
It metaphorically suggests that society constrains people
ANALYSIS
“unripe acorns” what does it imply? (3)
- Symbolic of children
- Unripe- Young
- change is forced upon them without permission
ANALYSIS
“swing and sandpit” what is the device and what does it imply?
- Sibilance
- sense of repetition that their lives are repeated
what is “courting places”? and what does it mean?
Dating - kissing place
moving on in life
CONTEXT
About the poem?
Poem was in a one line anthology
-painting on the cover
Facts about the poet?(5)
- grew up in council house
- melancholic
- embraced the non literary
- immense power to move on
Who was the critic and what did they say about the poem?(2)
- McClatchy
- In clipped, lucid stanzas, about the failures and remorse of age, about stunted lives and spoiled desires.”
What does the title suggest?(3)
- Time of day mirrors time in life;
- something is changing.
- Longueurs (tedious period of time) suggested.
STRUCTURE
What do the stanzas suggest?
- first stanza- depicts the natural order of decline – ‘leaves fall in ones and twos’;
- final stanza- change is forced on people without their permission
