Talking In Bed- Larkin

Question 1

About/context

Answer 1

The poem reflects Larkin troubled relationships with the women in his life
-He wrote this poem about himself and Monica Jones in 1960 at a time when he was beginning his flirtation ways to become affair with Maeve Brennan
-When women were unavailable and distant, he was excited and charming as they became available and closer he shot away
Monica Jones had been his partner for 10 years when he took up with Maeve and he managed to maintain relationships with both women for 17 years
-The poem is about PILLOWTALK the kind of conversations that lovers have before sleeping
-Should be a time for intimate exchanges and a way for establishing bond and affection. Instead he finds himself at a loss for words
-It’s another poem my liking use on an experience which is appoints him or lead him to question his belief

Question 2

Structure

Answer 2

-The rhythms of speech as he leads us through the argument but like again you just rhyme to give a tight underlying structure of the poem the first line of each standard rhyming or rhyming with the last
-And the last line of each stanza rhyming with the second line of the next
-The final stanza has rhyming triplets bringing the rhymes together and his hair they become noticeable as he draws his bitter little conclusion.

Question 3

“Emblem”

Answer 3

-represents a concept it is not real. It’s an ideal not real.
-Observing the couple from an outside perspective it’s a facade of an image on much to reality

Question 4

“ ought to be easy/yet”

Answer 4

He claims talking in bed should be easy, but yet questions is assumption as they are both silent
-The word ought immediately reveals that it isn’t
-

Question 5

‘ winds incomplete unrest”

Answer 5

-Like can shift the focus to the outside room using pathetic fallacy to convey the difficulties of the relationship
-The winds incomplete unrest mirrors the separation between the two lovers and lacking anxiety
-Incomplete may reflect that no relationship is ever complete fitting in with Larkin pessimism
-It’s the predestined end of a relationship. The concept of love can never exist in its hole as it only brings disappointment