Afternoons - Philip Larkin Flashcards
Disruptive force of nature - Afternoons
“the wind/is ruining their courting-places/that are stil courting places”
life is volatile/fragile. Nature is disrupting their memories and changing once familiar places. Almost bittersweet in a way, their surroundings are changing but not all together. Enjambment represents passage of time.
Dissatisfaction - Afternoons
“summer is fading” - the prime of their life is leaving.
“hollows of afternoons” - used to be full but as they settle into the family/middle aged life, they reach a stale, uncontented position. Boredom that comes with a domestic life begins to settle in. They accept this as a new role in their life as they can’t do anything else about it. Age of austerity.
Children are free - Afternoons
“setting free their children”
natural cycle of life - the children have control of their own lives but they are losing control.
“something is pushing them/to the side of their own lives” - unknown future, societal pressure, lost autonomy, dissatisfaction. Can’t quite bring themselves to be jealous of the children as they should be happy with what they have. “recreation ground” - innocence. All places presented are places where the younger generation stay and rejoice
Place doesn’t change itself - Afternoons
the people and conditions around it change
“(but the lovers are all in school)”
“their children” “expect to be taken home” - childlike innocence
“their beauty has thickened” - nothing ever truly changes, just the people around it mature and dont need it anymore (though this is bittersweet)
Passage of time - Afternoons
“the leaves fall in ones and twos” - one by one it gradually changes. Hard to detect (imperceptible)
“from trees bordering” enjambment over these two lines showing the passage of time.
Passive role of husbands - Afternoons
“and the albums, lettered/our wedding; lying/near the television”
their love is still present but it is distant and in the background. The sense of acceptance as their younger years slip away from them - the sense that they should be sad but they aren’t - almost a shame
Husbands aren’t present in their lives but still show a bit of support “behind them at intervals”.
“skilled trades” - provide them with money
Context - Afternoons
- written in 1959 in the age of austerity
- larkin never married or had children
- Larkin often based his poems on everyday situations and observations, often of the lives of strangers. He walked through a park daily to get to his job
