If, My Darling

Question 1

‘But to jump, like _________, with floating skirt into my head’ (If, My Darling)

Answer 1

Alice

Question 2

What technique is used here: ‘But to jump, like Alice, with floating skirt’ (If, My Darling)

Answer 2

Similie (this could also be considers an intertextual reference)

Question 3

Why does Larkin have the speaker in If, My Darling compare his partner to Alice (in wonderland)?

Answer 3

To suggest that he sees her as naive and child-like. He is also portraying how if she saw the real him, like Alice, she would enter an upside-down world of chaos and confusion