Afternoons

Question 1

Who wrote Afternoons?

Answer 1

Philip Larkin

Question 2

When did Larkin write Afternoons?

Answer 2

1959

Question 3

What was Larkin’s background?

Answer 3

Grew up in council house>1922-1985
Significant 20th century poet
Ordinary guy-worked as librarian for 30 years
Jazz fan-No kids
–>work characterised by detailed accounts of everyday life and relationships
Sick of romantic poetry (The Movement)-embraced non-literary
—>Reflected dreariness of post war Britain

Question 4

What purpose does each stanza of Afternoons depict? How does the mood change with this?

Answer 4

Stanza 1:
Depicts natural order of decline
-young mothers

Stanza 2:
Time’s control over our lives
-fathers in labour intensive industry

Stanza 3:
Suggests change is forced upon people without their consent in an inescapable cycle
-the gradual death of their romance

–>melancholic and downbeat throughout-matter of fact