Toads and Toads Revisited are poems in Philip Larkin’s collection that describes both the perks and burdens of a work life. Larkin’s view of work in ‘Toads’ is seen as a heavy load whereas in ‘Toads Revisited’‚ it is seen as something that keeps him occupied and helps him though life. ‘Toads Revisited’ was written after Larkin became a firmly established chief librarian of the Hull Library and he had no further to go because he had already reached the top position. His attitude to work had undergone
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In the poem “Toads” by Philip Larkin‚ a man who never makes himself known begins to talk about two toads. Although not being literal‚ the man uses toads as a metaphor for objects within his life which hold him back from feeling purely accomplished. The first toad that he speaks of is the influence and pressures which society forces on individuals to work. The second toad is one which he finds within his subconscious which prompts him to work and never quit‚ despite how bad he wants to. The man soon
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"Larkin is a poet of grey moods‚ suburban melancholy and accepted regrets." Do you agree or disagree You can look out of your life like a train and see what your heading for‚ but you can’t stop the train. This was one of Larkin’s famous quotes. It means life keeps going on‚ even when there’s a bump on the road and you need to stop‚ but you just simply can’t stop life. You have to be patient and flow through life until its time. This however‚ definitely composes Larkin as a poet who articulates
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Philip Larkin was born in 1922 in Coventry‚ England. Like Thomas Hardy‚ he focused on intense personal emotion but strictly avoided sentimentality or self-pity. Deeply anti-social and a great lover (and published critic) of American jazz‚ Larkin never married and conducted an uneventful life as a librarian in the provincial city of Hull‚ where he died in 1985. This short poem touches on a favourite theme of Larkin’s - the distance between what we originally plan and what‚ in the end‚ we achieve
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Philip Larkin Philip Larkin‚ is a famous writer in postwar Great Britain‚ was commonly referred to as "England’s other Poet Laureate" until his death in 1985. Indeed‚ when the position of laureate became vacant in 1984‚ many poets and critics favored Larkin’s appointment‚ but the shy‚ provincial author preferred to avoid the limelight. Larkin achieved acclaim on the strength of an extremely small body of work‚ just over one hundred pages of poetry in four slender volumes that appeared at almost
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Philip Larkin demonstrates the use of “piquant mixture of lyricism and discontent” through his poetic explorations in Here and The Whitsun Weddings. Both pieces were published in 1964 as a collection of poems collectively titled ‘The Whitsun Weddings’. In the poem Here you see both lyricism (expression of emotion in an imaginative and beautiful way) and discontent (dissatisfaction‚ typically with the prevailing social or political situation) though in The Whitsun Weddings you tend to see more lyricism
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‘HERE’ PHILIP LARKIN CRITICAL ANALYSIS ‘Here’ is a sprawling‚ moving and often majestic poem that takes the reader on a strikingly visual journey through the countryside and the town‚ before finally ending up on the coast. Larkin uses long‚ flowing sentences which add a sense of continual movement; these sentences are full of rich imagery and description which fully immerse the reader in the poem. The poem is titled ‘Here’‚ yet in the first three stanzas the poem takes in various locations and
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Analysis- SELFS THE MAN From the offset‚ we get the sense of a sarcastic‚ cynical and flippant character. “Oh‚ no one can deny / That Arnold is less selfish than I”. The colloquial “oh” gives a sense of how he brushes it off‚ and he seems to be boastful of his selfishness. Into the next few lines‚ he presents a stereotypical image of marriage as entrapment‚ “married a woman to stop her getting away” and the ironic aside‚ ‘Now she’s there all day” as though his “less selfish” friend didn’t know what
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Analysis of Philip Larkin’s poem ‘First sight’ in relation to the idea of natural progression through stages of life. First sight is an intense yet fulfilling interpretation of a newly born lambs first glimpses of the world. The poem also explores the difficulties the young lamb faces through its first experiences of the harsh environment and how they have to deal with it as they find their feet in the world. Been born in winter the lambs have yet to experience “earth’s unmeasurable surprise” which
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Write a close critical analysis of ‘Here’ showing how far this is characteristic of the style and concerns of Larkin’s collection ‘The Whitsun Weddings’ ‘Here’ is a poem exploring Larkin’s flight of imagination as he travels from London to Hull on the train. It is the first poem in The Whitsun Weddings collection and seems to be an appropriate introduction because‚ much like his other poetry‚ it looks at humanity’s place in the world and the effect of consumerism. Following the pattern of many
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