Afternoons - Phillip Larkin Flashcards
Structure
3, 8 line stanzas
No regular rhyme scheme
Intentionally short, concise lines
Enjamblement makes it 1 long sentence
Themes
Passing of time
Marriage
Social class
Context
Eminent writer in post-war Britain
Worked as a librarian in Hull and never married nor had any children
Offered the title of Poet Laureate but refused as he hated fame
Solitary man who disliked public literary life
Famously wrote negative, miserable poems which detailed observations of everyday life and relationships
Summer is fading:
Larkin begins the poem immediately with the idea of loss or degeneration. The transition of Summer to Winter is a matter of fact and inevitable. His use of “fading” clearly suggests this is a negative change as it’s losing its beauty
The leaves fall in ones and twos
The idea of leaves falling in “ones and twos” suggests the obvious loss of vigorous life experienced by the young mothers referred to later. That it is summer compounds the tragedy; this should be a time of energy and happiness. Note that this line is a monosyllablic string, with elongated vowels. The effect is to slow the pace and suggest the change is gradual and barely noticeable
From trees bordering
The new recreation ground.
Bordering also suggests order and confinement and that they are trapped in their life, contrasting to ‘setting free’ in the last line. The trees aren’t representative of closeness to nature, but are likened to an imprisoning trap. ‘New’ could also refer to the new generation on the phase in the adult’s life. The recreation ground should be a place of freedom, where mothers can gather while children can play safely. Yet, as the following lines will show, it only provides restriction.
In the hollows of afternoons
This metaphor suggests the emptiness of the lives of young mothers, particularly during a period in the afternoons when there is often nothing to do
Young mothers assemble
The “young mothers” appear to have lost individuality in their new status and there is a sense of regimentation suggested by the verb ‘assemble’ which has mechanical or artificial connotations. A pattern has been established and the women find company and maybe solace in coming to the playground. But this seems negative, as if it has become a tedious habit, rather than a pleasure. The plurality suggests it is the destiny of all young mothers
At swing and sandpit
Setting free their children
There is sibilance with the alliterative ‘s’s. While the children are free to run off energy, the adults by implication are trapped. ‘Setting free’ suggests that they are free not only to play but from their parent’s influences if just for a short time.
Behind them, at intervals,
Stand husbands in skilled trades
“Behind” suggests that the husbands
are there for support and comfort but the use of the word “intervals” hints at the idea that the husbands were often absent at work. The mothers are left on their own to
look after themselves and their children. Their respective lives have become distant from each other and each family member is separated from each other.’Skilled trades’ were often low profile, low pay jobs suggests that this is a working class estate and their jobs often has a lack of variety like the women’s lives
An estateful of washing,
Domestic imagery. Women were responsible for the housework and childbearing, highlighting traditional gender roles and ‘an estateful’ shows a lack of individuality as everyone hung their washing the same
And the albums, lettered
Our Wedding, lying
Near the television:
The wedding album, a symbol of the love between couples, is now carelessly left out in the open. It suggests increasingly distant relationships between couples as they move into adulthood and focus on their children. The impression is a wistful one – the albums as a symbol for a lost, romantic past. Again, there is a lack of individuality as everyone has one and it’s universal. There is also the duality of photography as it is genuine and artificial. Also, lying near the television implies that the screen has replaced intimacy and conversation. Note also the double entendre; “lying” also means not telling the truth, as if the album has deceived the once-hopeful couples.
Before them, the wind
Is ruining their courting-places
The destruction wreaked by the steady erosive power of the wind suggests that the once passionate lovers now have a relationship that is dutiful and lack-lustre. Pathetic fallacy
That are still courting-places
(But the lovers are all in school),
Larkin now focuses again on the children and how the mothers are unable to live their own lives and they are merely looking in. Their dreams, aspirations and needs have been put to one side. This is a metaphor that suggests the vestiges of romance still exist. The repetition implies that the next generation is doomed to follow the same relentlessly dull fate of their parents. The enjambment in this stanza illustrates this unbroken cycle, thus the structure of the poem perfectly mirrors its content. It also portrays love as childish and immature, not suitable for the practicalities ad responsibilities of adult life
So intent on
Finding more unripe acorns,
Their children show an intensity, a sense of purpose even in their activities that their mothers now lack. The imagery of ‘unripe acorns’ represent potential to grow into something fuller and mature. The children are learning early the possibilities of life, which the mothers discarded when their children were born.
