I Remember, I Remember

Question 1

In I Remember, I Remember, Larkin uses the same title as a poem by ________?

Answer 1

Thomas Hood

Question 2

Why does Larkin use the same title for I Remember, I Remember as that used for a poem by Thomas Hood?

Answer 2

Larkin’s poem is intended to be a challenge to the sentimental, cliched view of childhood in Hood’s poem.

Question 3

I Remember, I Remember describes a train arriving in the city of ________?

Answer 3

Coventry

Question 4

Contextually, what is the significance of I Remember, I Remember being set in Coventry?

Answer 4

Coventry was Larkin’s place of birth and his childhood home. We might therefore suggest that, to an extent, the poem is autobiographical.

Question 5

‘Why, Coventry!’ I ____________’ (I Remember, I Remember)

Answer 5

exclaimed

Question 6

What is the significance of the speaker beginning I Remember, I Remember by saying ‘Why Coventry! I exclaimed’

Answer 6

The exclamation is intended to convey the speaker’s initial excitement and surprise upon inadvertently returning to Coventry.

Question 7

‘I leant far out, and _____________ for a sign’ (I Remember, I Remember)

Answer 7

squinnied

Question 8

In I Remember, I Remember, what does the word ‘squinnied’ mean?

Answer 8

To squint. The speaker says he ‘squinnied for a sign’ suggesting that he cannot properly see or make sense of Coventry - he is an outsider.

Question 9

That this was still the town that had been ‘___________’ (I Remember, I Remember)

Answer 9

mine

Question 10

In I Remember, I Remember, why does Larkin use inverted commas for the word ‘mine’: ‘squinnied for a sign // That this was still the town that had been ‘mine’

Answer 10

Larkin is mocking the idea that a person can have a deep connection with a place and feel it is ‘mine’.

Question 11

That this was still the town that had been ‘mine’ // ‘where my childhood was ____________’ (I Remember, I Remember)

Answer 11

unspent

Question 12

In I Remember, I Remember, what technique does Larkin use in the lines: ‘did not invent blinding theologies’/wasn’t spoken to by an old hat’/’I never ran to…’

Answer 12

Repeated negators

Question 13

In I Remember, I Remember, why does Larkin use repeated negators, e.g. ‘did not invent blinding theologies’/wasn’t spoken to by an old hat’/’I never ran to…’

Answer 13

To show all the things that the speaker’s childhood was not - all the things that were missing from his youth.

Question 14

‘the boys all biceps and the girls all __________’ (I Remember, I Remember)

Answer 14

chest

Question 15

Why does the narrator in I Remember, I Remember, describe the peers of his youth as ‘the boys all biceps and the girls all chest’

Answer 15

He is mocking these gender cliches; however, it also presents the narrator as an outsider.

Question 16

____________ like something happens anywhere’ (I Remember, I Remember)

Answer 16

Nothing