Poetry of Departures Flashcards
how does Larkin use meter in Poetry of Departures to illustrate his messages?
rough accentual meter: most (though not all) lines contain two or three stressed syllables, but a differing number of unstressed syllables. The poem sounds quite conversational yet has a subtle underlying pulse to it.
how does Larkin use structure in Poetry of Departures to illustrate his messages?
4 octets: The poem’s short lines seem to wrestle against this shape through enjambment and caesura There’s a kind of push and pull going on, an attempt to break free that never quite succeeds.
how does Larkin use rhyme in Poetry of Departures to illustrate his messages?
ABCBADCD. Most of the rhymes are slant, sharing nothing but some final consonance (as in “epitaph”/”off” or “fifth-hand”/”sound” - sounds at once musical and conversational, at once carefully constructed and free-flowing.
Analyse the quote ‘fifth-hand, / as epitaph’ from Poetry of Departures
- play on 2nd-hand; so far removed its ridiculous
- loses its original meaning; unreliable, undependable due to tendency to exagerrate; storytelling; myth or legend rather than actual story
- ‘epitaph’ brings ideas of death; to abandon work is to begin a new life; person is dead so to abandon work is to ruin your life; misremembering and glorifying is almost mocking, it is overly dramatic - they are not actually dead
analyse the quote ‘audacious, purifying, / elemental move’ from Poetry of Departures
- triple of adjectives on surface is new, exciting, bold, powerful, unique but becomes almost hyperbolic with a mocking undertone
- ‘purifying’ is almost a religious experience; an awakening - romanticised ideal
- ‘elemental’ suggests it is groundbreaking, absurd, shocking
analyse the quote ‘we all hate home’ from Poetry of Departures
- collective pronoun shows univeral nature of a monotonous life; the speaker understands, to an extent, the desire to leave
- monosyllabic and simple lexis; almost childlike (naive, foolish); simple messages to show universality
analyse the quote ‘specially-chosen junk’ from Poetry of Departures
- tries to make it personal but it is all meaningless
- oxymoron; mocking of material possessions; if we don’t need these, we don’t need to work
analyse the quote ‘the good books, the good bed / and my life, in perfect order’ from Poetry of Departures
- repetition shows monotony of day-to-day life
- ‘society has decided they are ‘good’ for him
- despite perfection, he is still unsatisfied; detests perfection showing human desire for freedom and chaos
analyse the quote ‘leaves me flushed and stirred / like then she undid her dress / or take that you bastard’ from Poetry of Departures
- strong emotions make him individual
- comparison of social rebellion to sexual desire and violence; base response shows innate human nature to want to escape and can have dire consequences (as sex and violence can)
- parallels abandoning society with adrenaline-inducing activities suggesting the feeling doesn’t last and is over quickly
analyse the quote ‘so to hear it said / he walked out on the crowd’ from Poetry of Departures
- enjambment shows separation of speaker from society
- no pause at end of stanza shows restlessness of those who do/dont abandon work
- the pause in the line draws attention to the hyperbolic act of leaving
analyse the quote ‘swagger […] crouch’ from Poetry of Departures
- ‘swagger’ suggests confidence and arrogance suggesting people who abandon work perceive themselves as superior; speaker mocks this proposing they are foolish and naive to reality
- ‘crouch’ seems weak suggesting their display of confidence is false
analyse the quote ‘stubbly with goodness’ from Poetry of Departures
- growing a beard is connected to hippie culture; an outward image symbolic of ‘letting go’
- also suggests new, uncomfortable growth
analyse the quote ‘so artificial / such a deliberate step backwards’ from Poetry of Departures
- leaving work creates a facade of happiness; working is the natural and superior option
- to lose work is to lose purpose
- the man who throws away everything is caught in the same illusion as the person with their life in ‘perfect order’; both lives are artificial and evasive and a step backwards from the truth that life is always dissastisfying - there is no ‘poetry of departures’ except in our illusions
analyse the quote ‘books; china; a life / reprehensibly perfect’ from Poetry of Departures
- suggests life itself can become a commodity
- oxymoronic
- speaker thinks we can’t/shouldn’t have a perfect life; everyone wants what they can’t have so we should stop trying to chase it
- our lives shouldn’t be flawless; we have to experiences struggles and hardship
