Poetry - Sunny Prestatyn

Question 1

When was Sunny Prestatyn written?

Answer 1

1962

Question 2

What literary movement was Larkin associated with?

Answer 2

‘The movement’

Question 3

Describe ‘The movement’

Answer 3

An anti-modernist literary movement that wanted to return to traditional techniques and clarity in their writing:

• To achieve a mixture of rationality with feeling
• To express honesty and realism about self + about the outside world

Question 4

What is the key theme present in Sunny Prestatyn?

Answer 4

Gender: attitudes towards women

Question 5

In stanza 1 of Sunny Prestatyn, how are attitudes towards women shown?

Answer 5

The woman in the poster demonstrates a sexualised image of female beauty

• But also, purity, innocence ‘the girl’ + white satin
• But also, glamourous –> the male gaze

Question 6

In the middle of Sunny Prestatyn, how are attitudes towards women shown?

Answer 6

Tone becomes much more violent and reminiscent of physical abuse, misogyny: ‘slapped up’

• Sexualised lang references rape/sexual assault
• Male perpetrator (Titch Thomas)

Question 7

By the end of Sunny Prestatyn, how are attitudes towards women shown?

Answer 7

The woman is absent + replaced by a symbol of death and fear (cancer)
- Objective viewpoint presented - reader left to make up our own minds

Question 8

What could Larkin be commenting on in SUnny Prestatyn?

Answer 8

• There is a British focus to the poem

- Larkin may be criticising British society as a whole

Question 9

How does Sunny Prestatyn adhere to the ideals of ‘The Movement’?

Answer 9

• Focus on the everyday (poster, graffiti, Titch Thomas)
• Use of colloquial lang
• Accessibility of the poem and its ideas
• Traditional poetic form

Question 10

Give 5 comic features present in Sunny Prestatyn.

Answer 10

• Bawdy lang (explicit, taboo, vulgar…)
• Ordinary people (Titch Thomas)
• Exaggeration (the posters claim)
• Dark undercurrents
• Satire

Question 11

What is Larkin satirising in Sunny Prestatyn?

Answer 11

Advertising and its hyperbolic claims

Question 12

Describe elements of Sunny Prestatyn that potentially conflict with its comedy

Answer 12

• Ordinary people contrasted with an idealised figure of women
• Happiness soon turns to violence and disillusionment (stanza 2), where the fantasy of the poster is slowly eroded by the end real life has taken over

Question 13

What type of rhyme scheme does Larkin use in Sunny Prestatyn?

Answer 13

ABCABDCD –> Controlled, intricate

- Contrasts with freedom in language (e.g colloquialisms and directness in ideas)