Arrivals, Departures Flashcards
What device is used in the title?
Caesura - to show fleeting nature of opportunities as soon as they arrive, they leave
How does this poem use the image of a boat?
Uses a boat arriving on a morning shore to explore life’s opportunites and the difficulty of ever knowing whether we have made the right choice. (nautical imagery)
Who did Larkin write his poems for?
The man at the bus stop - ‘sad eyed realism’
‘channel boats come sidling’
The arrival is secretive, stealthy almost unnoticed - can be sometimes difficult to make sense of or fully see (representative of opportunities)
‘(His bag of samples, knocking at his knees)’
Parenthesis - opportunities as plentiful? burden? awkward?
‘barely recalled from sleep there, sense’
Arrival is loud juxtaposes boat’s quiet entrance - opportunities come suddenly, demanding our attention. Caesura - disruptive nature of making choices. Metaphor - in the wake of opportunities, we are not quite conscious/ overwhelmed - unconsciously make decisions
What can be inferred through ‘blurred to the morning shore’?
We are often distracted by noise and diversions when making choices
What can be inferred through ‘doleful distance’?
The plosive alliteration highlights the pressure to choice as harsh and how they will make us feel pain and regret in the future
What device is used in ‘horny dilemmas’?
Pun 1. horn of the ship, signalling its arrival 2. unthinkingly, we base our decisions on primitive desires
What device is used in ‘come and choose wrong’?
Italics/personification of dilemmas as seductive and tempting, drawing us to make the wrong decision
What device is used in ‘And so we rise.’?
The monosyllabic language and the end stop shows how we almost blindly respond to societies demands but also the monotonous pressure of societies expectations
What can be inferred through ‘the outward bound’?
Departing ship represents how opportunities once new and within reach are now disappearing and out of reach
What device is used in ‘nudged from comfort’?
Metaphor suggest we can never feel truly relaxed/settled in the aftermath of making choices due to vanishing opportunities
What can be inferred through the 3 final rhyming lines ‘knowing’ ‘blowing’ ‘going’?
Intended to quicken the tempo representing the fast, disappearing sense of choice
What can be inferred about the complex rhyme scheme?
Choice as confusing? overwhelming?
