If, My Darling, Places, Loved Ones and Church Going Flashcards
La
‘But to jump, like ________, with floating skirt into my head’ (If, My Darling)
Alice
What technique is used here: ‘But to jump, like Alice, with floating skirt’ (If, My Darling)
simile (this could also be considered an intertextual reference)
Why does Larkin have the speaker in If, My Darling compare his partner to Alice (in Wonderland)?
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.
What technique is used here: ‘‘She would find no tables and chairs// She would find no tables and chairs// No mahogany claw-footed sideboards,// No undisturbed embers’ (If, My Darling)
anaphoric repetition/anaphora
In If, My Darling why does Larkin use anaphoric repetition: ‘…no tables and chairs// No mahogany claw-footed sideboards, // No undisturbed embers’
To convey how the world the ‘darling’ would find would be entirely unfamiliar and deeply uncomfortable.
‘Monkey-__________, fish-__________’ (If, My Darling)
brown/grey
In If, My Darling, why does Larkin use colour imagery (‘Monkey-brown, fish-grey’) to describe the speaker’s true self?
These colours are dark and have connotations of sickliness, conveying the speaker’s true self as being defined by a sense of bleakness and disease.
What is the semantic field used in If, My Darling via the following: ‘sicken’, ‘unwholesome’, ‘grave’?
This is a semantic field of death and decay, which is used to present the speaker’s true self as being unpleasant and corrupted.
In If, My Darling, who or what is the ‘Grecian statue kicked in the privates’?
This metaphor represents the speaker. Whereas once his darling may have seen him as noble and admirable (like a ‘Grecian statue’) if she saw the real him she would perceive him to be embarrassing and emasculated (‘kicked in the privates’)
Each one _________ - ___________ with meaning and meaning’s rebuttal’ (If, My Darling)
double-yolked
In If, My Darling, why does Larkin say that the ‘darling’ would hear a noise that is ‘double-yoked with meaning and meaning’s rebuttal’?
To convey that, were she to face the speaker’s true self, the ‘darling’ would hear a mass of contradictions and lies.
‘unpicks the world like a _________’ (If, My Darling)
knot
‘Might knock my darling off her ______________ pivot’ (If, My Darling)
unpriceable
What technique is used here: ‘unpicks the world like a knot’ (If, My Darling)?
simile
If, My Darling is structured as _____________
tercets
Does If, My Darling use a regular rhyme scheme?
Yes, it is an ABA rhyme scheme.
Why does Larkin structure If, My Darling using tercets?
We might suggest the uneven verse length (3 lines) represents the uneven, chaotic nature of the speaker’s mind. Also, the 3-line structure perhaps represents the three people the poem is about: 1. the darling 2. the speaker’s illusory self 3. The speaker’s real self.
‘__________, I have never found’ (Places, Loved Ones)
No
‘This is my _________ / ___________ here I shall stay’ (Places, Loved Ones)
proper ground
In Places, Loved Ones what is significant about the language Larkin uses when imitating the voice of society?
The language is pompous (self-important) and somewhat cliched - e.g. ‘proper ground’/’special one’. This is done to mock the generic ideas of finding happiness through a person or place.
Why does Larkin use multiple negators in Places, Loved Ones, e.g. ‘NO, I have never found’/’NOR met that special one’/’You want NO choice’
To convey how the speaker is entirely and forcefully rejecting the cliched expectations of society.
What are the connotations of the word ‘claim’ and ‘prove’ used in Places, Loved Ones?
These words have formal, legal connotations - this conveys the speaker’s view that romantic relationships are actually just a form of restrictive contract.
What is the correct term for the 8-line stanzas, like those used in Places, Loved Ones?
octaves
Why does Places, Loved Ones begin with the speaker saying, ‘No….’?
He is responding (and rejecting) the expectations of society - that we should all find happiness through a person or place.
‘you’re __________ none the less, to act’ (Places, Loved Ones)
bound
In the final verse of Places, Loved Ones, why does the speaker say the speaker is ‘bound’?
To convey ideas of restriction. The speaker suggests that ‘having missed them’ - the person you hoped to meet and love - you are trapped by having to pretend you are happy with what you ‘settled for’.
Does Places, Loved Ones use a regular rhyme scheme?
Yes, a regular AB rhyme scheme.
Places, Loved Ones was written just as Larkin was moving from Belfast to ___________?
Hull
How might Places, Loved Ones be linked to events in Larkin’s own life at the time?
He was leaving Belfast after working as a librarian there. Therefore, like the speaker in the poem, he had no solid sense of home at the time.
‘Once I am sure there’s nothing _________ / __________’ (Church Going)
going on
What is the significance of the opening line from Church Going? ‘Once I am sure there’s nothing going on’
The phrase ‘nothing going on’ perhaps suggests the speaker views the church with suspicion - almost as a place of strange, cultish practices.
sprawlings of flowers, cut // For Sunday, ___________ now; (Church Going)
brownish
In Church Going, what is the significance of the ‘brownish’ flowers and the ‘musty’ silence?
Both ideas have connotations of something stale and past its best. This is perhaps what Larkin is suggesting about the church and the role of religion.
‘some brass and _________’ (Church Going)
stuff
What is the significance of Larkin referring to the sacred items in the church as ‘some brass and stuff’?
It suggests that the speaker sees the church, and the objects in it, as insignificant and dull.
What technique is used in the title of Church Going?
A pun
How does Larkin employ a pun in the title of Church Going?
‘Church Going’ could literally refer to the practice of ‘going’ to (attending) church. However, it could also be describing how the relevance of the church is ‘going’ from society.
In Church Going, what worthless currency does the speaker donate to the church?
‘An Irish sixpence’
In Church Going, why does the speaker donate ‘an Irish sixpence’?
This currency is worthless, so this gesture is used by Larkin to convey how, initially at least, the protagonist sees the church as having no value.
Where does Larkin employ a volta in Church Going?
At the beginning of the third stanza. After previously commenting that the church was ‘not worth stopping for’, the speaker then admits ‘Yet stop I did: in fact I often do’
What is a volta?
The turning point in a poem
‘__________ what to look for; _______________, too…’ (Church Going)
wondering
Why is repetition used in Church Going as the speaker describes: ‘Wondering what to look for; wondering, too,// When churches fall completely out of use// What we shall turn them into?’
To show a more reflective and less dismissive tone. The speaker contemplates the future of the church.
In the penultimate stanza of Church Going, the narrator describes the church as a ‘special ____________’
shell
What adjective is repeated in the final stanza of Church Going to describe the church and its role in society?
serious.
Which word is used in the final stanza of Church Going to convey how the church will always have an unexplainable power to attract people?
‘gravitating’
What did Larkin’s father tell him about religion?
‘Never believe in God!’
How did Larkin refer to religion?
‘absolute balls’
