At Grass, Wants, Reasons for Attendance

Question 1

‘From the ___________ shade they shelter in’

Answer 1

cold

Question 2

What technique is used here: ‘The cold shade they shelter in’? (At Grass)

Answer 2

pathetic fallacy

Question 3

In At Grass, why does Larkin refer to ‘the cold shade [the horses] shelter in’?

Answer 3

To convey how, at the beginning of the poem, the horses seem neglected and vulnerable.

Question 4

‘stands __________ again’ (At Grass)

Answer 4

anonymous

Question 5

In the first stanza of At Grass, why are the horses described as being ‘anonymous’?

Answer 5

To suggest that they lack a proper or meaningful identity.

Question 6

‘Two dozen distances sufficed to __________ them’ (At Grass)

Answer 6

fable

Question 7

What technique is used here - ‘Silks at the start: against the sky/Numbers and parasols’? (At Grass)

Answer 7

sibilance

Question 8

Why does Larkin use sibilance in the lines - ‘Silks at the start: against the sky/Numbers and parasols’? (At Grass)

Answer 8

To capture the noise and energy of the race meeting, and therefore the excitement and intensity of the horses’ former identity.

Question 9

‘Do _________ plague their ears like flies?’ (At Grass)

Answer 9

memories

Question 10

In At Grass, what does the speaker question when he says - ‘Do memories plague their ears like flies’?

Answer 10

He questions whether the horses are saddened by the memories of their former exciting lives.

Question 11

‘they have slipped their ____________’ (At Grass)

Answer 11

names

Question 12

‘the ___________ meadows’

Answer 12

unmolesting

Question 13

In the penultimate stanza of At Grass, why are the horses described as living in ‘umolesting meadows’?

Answer 13

It shows that they are now left alone and have found a form of peace through being at one with the natural world.

Question 14

In the final stanza of At Grass, why are the horses described as having ‘slipped their names’?

Answer 14

They have gained a kind of freedom through ‘anonymity’ - they are no longer controlled or defined by the human world.

Question 15

Does At Grass use a regular rhyme scheme?

Answer 15

Yes. There in an ABC rhyme scheme.

Question 16

What is the correct term for a six-line stanza, like those used in At Grass?

Answer 16

sestets

Question 17

The Poem Wants explores the conflict between the wants and desires of the _____________ and those of ___________.

Answer 17

speaker/society.

Question 18

‘the sky grows __________ with invitation cards’ (Wants)

Answer 18

dark

Question 19

Why does the speaker in Wants describe that ‘the sky grows dark with invitation cards’?

Answer 19

To convey how the expectation to socialise and be part of a community fills him with a sense of dread and anxiety.

Question 20

‘the ___________ directions of sex’ (Wants)

Answer 20

printed

Question 21

Why does the narrator in Wants refer to sex having ‘printed directions’?

Answer 21

To suggest that sex, something that should be meaningful and personal, is actually just another dull societal expectation.

Question 22

‘Beyond all this, the wish to be __________ ‘ (Wants)

Answer 22

alone

Question 23

In Wants, why does Larkin repeat the speaker’s desires at the end of each stanza, as well as stating them at the beginning?

Answer 23

To show that these ‘wants’ - ‘to be alone’ or embrace ‘oblivion’ - are constant and inescapable.

Question 24

What societal expectation does the main character mock in the line ‘the family photographed under the flag-staff’?

Answer 24

The expectation that we all take part in society through having a family and being a proud part of our nation.

Question 25

‘the __________ aversion of the eyes away from death’ (Wants)

Answer 25

costly

Question 26

In Wants why does ‘beyond all this…’ change to ‘beneath all this’?

Answer 26

To convey how societal expectations inevitably come to weigh us down.

Question 27

In Wants, why does the speaker say that averting our eyes from death is ‘costly’?

Answer 27

Because it means that we don’t fully engage with life; by not accepting our own mortality, we don’t truly live.

Question 28

What is the correct term for five-line stanzas, such as those used in Wants?

Answer 28

quintains (you can also call these quintets)

Question 29

‘The trumpet’s ___________ loud and authoritative’ (Reasons for Attendance)

Answer 29

voice

Question 30

What technique is used here: ‘the trumpet’s voice loud and authoritative’ (Reasons for Attendance)?

Answer 30

personification

Question 31

‘___________ on the beat of happiness’ (Reasons for Attendance)

Answer 31

Solemnly

Question 32

‘Draws me a moment to the ____________ glass’ (Reasons for Attendance)

Answer 32

lighted

Question 33

What technique is used here: ‘face to flushed face’ (Reasons for Attendance)?

Answer 33

alliteration

Question 34

In Reasons for Attendance, why are the dancers described as moving ‘solemnly on the beat of happiness’?

Answer 34

The speaker suggests there is a strange formality to the movement of the dancers. ‘On the beat of happiness’ implies their joy is regulated and tightly controlled.

Question 35

(Art, if you like) whose __________ sound//Insists I too am ____________. (Reasons for Attendance)

Answer 35

individual

Question 36

‘It speaks; I __________’ (Reasons for Attedance)

Answer 36

hear

Question 37

‘I can live week without poetry but not a day without ___________’

Answer 37

jazz

Question 38

For which newspaper did Larkin write jazz reviews?

Answer 38

The Daily Telegraph

Question 39

‘they _________ to and fro’ (Reasons for Attendance)

Answer 39

maul

Question 40

Why does the main character of Reasons for Attendance describe how the dancers ‘maul’ each other?

Answer 40

He is suggesting that their desires are primitive and undignified.

Question 41

‘If no one has misjudged himself. Or __________’ (Reasons for Attendance)

Answer 41

lied

Question 42

What is the significance of the final line of Reasons for Attendance: ‘If no one has misjudged himself. Or lied’

Answer 42

The main character wonders whether actually he has just deceived himself that he can find happiness in solitariness, and is therefore no better than the dancers and their illusory desires.

Question 43

Does Reasons for Attendance use a regular rhyme scheme?

Answer 43

Yes - ABABB. However, most of this is in half-rhymes, with the exception of the poem’s final rhyming couplet.