Reasons for Attendance

Question 1

analyse the quote ‘the trumpet’s voice loud and authoritative’ from Reasons for Attendance

Answer 1

speaker yields to the trumpet’s voice
metaphor for the draw of things other than his work
personification; society’s expectations are overwhelming, demanding, and oppressive

Question 2

analyse the quote ‘lighted glass’ from Reasons for Attendance

Answer 2

can’t be touched; almost a mirage
stops him accessing; a boundary between speaker and dancer (speaker and society/societal desires)
‘light’ is perhaps suggestive of hope and excitement promised by societal demands; the glass is symbolic of social norms which block humanity’s access to genuine happiness

Question 3

analyse the quote ‘all under twenty-five’ from Reasons for Attendance

Answer 3

• youth, freedom, height of beauty
• desires of society; dancers are everyday, conforming members of society
• suggests naivete in youth, naïve happiness; seems to be contrived happiness and freedom - youth tied to happiness; cannot continue into adulthood as it is dependent on innocence

Question 4

analyse the quote ‘solemnly on the beat of happiness’ from Reasons for Attendance

Answer 4

juxtaposition; paradoxical - according to the speaker, dancer’s genuine emotions are solemn and they are putting on a facade of happiness to fulfil their role

Question 5

analyse the quote ‘why be out here? / but then, why be in there? sex, yes, but what / is sex?’ from Reasons for Attendance

Answer 5

• triple rhetorical questions; uncertainty
• repetition of words; trying to find a deeper meaning to sex but sees it as a base desire and himself as superior
• rejects stereotypical connotations of sex and desire; intimacy is contrived, meaningless, unsentimental and relationships are just a distraction
• debating; doesn’t understand the notion of ‘sex sells’

Question 6

analyse the quote ‘sheer / inaccuracy’ from Reasons for Attendance

Answer 6

• enjambment at volta; suspension of ‘sheer’ shows speaker realising their genuine emotions
• typical placement, typical of Larkin; doesn’t believe happiness comes from relationships - typicality means volta itself becomes representative of social norms
• visual manifestation of rejection of social norms

Question 7

analyse the quote ‘lifted, rough-tongued bell’ from Reasons for Attendance

Answer 7

• ‘lifted’ = higher arts
• ‘rough-tongued’ compound adjective; contrasts trumpet - the bell is rough but real - peels deception away like sandpaper, it is unforgiving and complex - finds the truth of himself and society as his preference for art makes him separate from society
• trumpets play together, bells don’t

Question 8

analyse the quote ‘insists I too am individual. / it speaks; i hear’ from Reasons for Attendance

Answer 8

• not following society; replaces relationships with art
• syntactic parallelism suggests he is in sync with art

Question 9

analyse the quote ‘not for me, nor I for them’ from Reasons for Attendance

Answer 9

• acceptance of complete separation; sees himself as fundamentally different
• ‘me’ vs ‘them’ - him, the individual, against all the un-unique masses; unwilling to form relationships with society

Question 10

analyse the quote ‘they maul to and fro’ from Reasons for Attendance

Answer 10

• violent fighting, unrest, animalistic, primitive
• contrasts him as a higher form of being and the connotations of dancing as elegant and cultured
• ‘trumpet’ is smooth and draws people in, putting up a facade for violence, whereas bell is simple and honest
• even though the final line implies both ways of being are okay, they ‘maul’ whereas he does not; still superior

Question 11

analyse the quote ‘both are satisfied, / if no one has misjudged himself. or lied.’ from Reasons for Attendance

Answer 11

• if you act in truth, you will be happy no matter your choice
• ‘or lied’: this could be the speaker warning society against ‘dumbing yourself down’ to fit in OR a moment of uncertainty for the speaker with the caesura as a moment of reflection