Dockery And Son- L Flashcards
Themes - dockery
-isolation
-time
“Death suited” “numbness:”
-immediately met with image of death
-person is in funeral attire
-sets tone for rest of the poem
-Suggest that the passage of time had drained the speakers life of vitality an purpose
“His sons here now”
-realising his age
-shocked at how old he now is and how much time has passed
“I try the door of where i used to live: Locked” “known bell” ‘Lawn”
-looked out of his past lifee
-enjambment is reflecting his inability to go back
- he no longer belongs here
- this place is important to him and a landmark in his life but he is nothing special to it in return
-Imagery symbolises the personas lost your and closed opportunities that come with aging
-The vibrant ‘lawn and familiar ‘bell” seems distance and unreachable like the speaker is cut off from his own past
“I catch my train, ignored”
-metaphor for the journey of life
-the sense of insignificance
“Canal and clouds and colleges subside slowly from view”
-Alliteration of c and rhythm mimic movement and journey of the train
-subsiding gives the ideas of his life at uni moving behind him and out of his view, time passes slowly through life gradually disappearing
“Where i changed”
Uses the train journey as a conceit for life
-changes trains reflects the important changes in life that are explored in the poem
“Joining and parting lines” reflects a strong unhindered moon”
-conceit of train journey used again to reflect how people weave in and out of people’s lives
- uses enjambment to mirror the relentless unstructured passage of time as thought flow without clear breaks reflecting the way memories and realisation merges as one ages
- imagery suggests the train tracks along which the persona travels symbolises the paths people take through life each marked by moments coming together and drifting apart
- coveys a melancholy acceptance of times passage and an acknowledgment of its steady unaltered flow
“To have no son, no wife, no house or land seemed quite natural”
-repetition of no makes it negative
-reflects the societal pressures to conform
-defiled social expectations, links to Larkin as he was never draw to long term relationships or having children
-still feels natural to persona as they are living how they wish
“Only a numbness registered the shock of finding out how much had gone of life”
-recognising how he hasn’t made much of his life hence the numbness showing he might regret lots in his life
– reinforces the them of lost potential throughout time and the profound realisation of how time has slipped away
- conveys a sense of missed opportunity
-“gone” implies permanent loss reinforcing the irreversibility of time and the disorientation that can accompany it
-numbness reflects the detachment from his own life journey and instead of grieving what has been lost he experienced a Dulled shock suggesting that life has slipped away without his active participation or awareness.
“To me it was dilution”
-sees having children or a marriage to weaken a person and take away from their life
“Not from what we think truest or most want to do: those warp tight shut, like doors. They’re more of a style our lives bring with them: habit for a while,
-reach the crux of the poem (most important)
-instead of deciding what we want to do based on desires and interests we are pushed to act and behave in certain ways by society
-may lead us to make important decisions we think we want but are just a continuations of society’s expectations
-this define us and our lives even if we don’t want them to.
“Like sand clouds, thick and close”
-obscuring
-choices coming back to suffocate us
“Whether or not we use it, it goes.”
-No matter what we do in life it will end
-irregular rhyme scheme and conversational tone contribute to a sense of detachment and aimlessness reinforcing the speakers feeling of drifting through life
- the idea that time is indifferent to human plants achievements or regrets
“Only end of age”
Inevitable ending death
-existential realisation
-persona sees time as a force that diminishes all human ambitions leaving not inevitability of mortality
Structure
-stanzas become irregular and final one is most irregular
-could suggest larkins thoughts becoming darker or lack of control over life
Links with Duffy
-captain of the form team
-both feel shut out by their past, lost youth
‘Think and close, embodying, for dockery a son for me nothing
“Life is first then boredom’s then fear “
-presents the extesntial dread of a life perceived as empty
-with the speaker feeling alienated from traditional life milestones lifke family
Realisation brings the speaker to a bleak conclusion “life is first bordeom then fear’- encapsulating his clinical outlook on the progression from youthful indifferences to the dread of morality
- he emphasises the relentlessness of time suggesting that regardless the path one chooses a life like dockery one filled with family or a solitary experience time will past regardless
“Nothing”
-repeated focus on nothing suggests he sees his life as ultimately hollow, haunted by what he hasn’t achieved compared to dockery.
Context
-Larkin often expressed his scepticism about life paths and trad values questioning the necessity of marriage, family (which he never had) and career ambitions “no son not wife no house or land”
-the poem becomes a reflection on societal expectations and the realisation that these choices -whether to conform or not- are a major part of human existence
- the personas amibivlance about dockery choices may reflect Larkins own views on societal belief “not from what we think truest or most want to do”
-challenging the assumption that having children of following convential paths lead to a more fulfilling life
About
- explores the passage of time by portraying the persona who reflects on his own choices in contrast to his peers life paths
- the persona revisits his past through memories of his peer dockery
-overall reflects a bleak view of time as the persona seems to meet the conclusion that life’s significance is inherently limited by times passages
