Philip Larkin's poem "Nothing To Be Said" discusses the inevitability of death and the emptiness of life. The poem uses repetition and lists to emphasize how death comes for all people, whether they live for many hours or are newly born, and how everything we build and love will eventually die. While some are not bothered by thoughts of death, others are left speechless by the idea that there is ultimately "nothing to be said" in response to the meaningless and slow progression towards death that is life.

1. Nothing To Be SaidPhilip Larkin

2. What’s it about?
DEATHAfter a first reading, the poem appears pessimistic and
this is true, however like most Larkin poems there is
philosophical thought in the last stanza and this make
readers think. Links to the majority of Larkin’s poems,
due to the puzzling nature of the ending.

3. Stanza 1
• Unites every individual with death, the one thing we all have in
common.
• Suggests that despite all of our differences, we’re all going to die.
• Doesn’t use positive language to describe the people: ‘vague as weed’,
‘among stones’, ‘small-statured cross-faced’.
• ‘dark mornings’ implies that every day is dark due to the inevitability
of death, doesn’t use any positive language.
• Life is slow dying’ is said after mentioning all of the different types of
people, which dampens the atmosphere of the poem straight away.
• Paradox - ‘Life is slow dying’ – Life is the opposite to death, so how
can life die? Suggests living is dying, which doesn’t make sense.
• Man made environment, described negatively to suggest that it’s
damaging its surroundings and is therefore, not worth building.
Everything leads to death anyway, so the people that built it won’t
use it for long.

4. Stanza 2
• Everything we’ve built, loved, earned is going to die.
• Suggests everything is pointless.
• First repetition of ‘slowly dying’ emphasises Larkin’s views on the
emptiness and pointlessness of living.

5. Stanza 3
• ‘Hours giving evidence/Or birth, advance/On death equally
slowly’ – despite however long you spend living or creating new
life, whether you have lived for a long time or are a new-born
baby, it is inevitable that we will all encounter death at some
point.
• Repetition again ‘equally slowly’ – Third time, reinforcing point.
• ‘Slowly’ implies that our time until death is being dragged out,
connotes ‘slow and painful death’ which could suggest living is
merely a prolonged death.
• Suggests that ‘saying so to some means nothing’ in other words,
the thought of death does not bother them, but also that to
‘others it leaves/Nothing to be said’. This could be interpreted as
them being taken back by Larkin’s negative thought process,
them being left speechless by how true this could be in reality,
but also them not wanting to talk about death as it does scare
many of us.

6. Literary Devices
• Repetition – emphasises death in each stanza and repeats the
word ‘nothing’ in the last stanza to suggest the emptiness of life
and how it is worth nothing.
• Enjambment between stanzas 2 and 3 – drags out ending.
• Listing – Elongates everything to the extent where it’s almost too
long, suggesting that this is like everything we do. If we’re bound
to die anyway, why is it that we must wait for so long living, but
always knowing we will succumb to it.

7. Links
• Mr. Bleaney – Death. Pointless, bleak life which of course, resulted
in death with nothing achieved.
• Dockery and Son – ‘And age, and then the only end of age’ and
‘Life is first boredom then fear’. Pessimistic, philosophical ending
amounting to death.
• Love Songs in Age – Pointlessness of things done in the past. Her
sheet music will only go on to ‘die’, despite once being freshly
written it is bound go to go out of use again.

8. A Wall - Similarities
• ‘it begins for no reason, ends no place’ – much like Larkin’s view
of life throughout NTBS.
• ‘forty-four paces long, high as your eyes’ – makes the wall seem
predictable, like people. All the same.
• ‘Seemingly unremarkable’ – double meaning. Negative meaning
being that life is ‘just there’ and unimpressive.
• Use of similar language, such as ‘stones’ and ‘different greys’
conveys dullness.
• Wall is man-made, like the environment Larkin describes in
stanza one of NTBS.
Dannie Abse

9. A Wall - Differences
• ‘Don’t say this wall is useless’ – suggests that the wall/life is worth
something, despite it appearing ‘useless’, ‘unremarkable’ and ‘grey’.
• ‘It exists for…’ – gives purposes for its existence, implying that
everything is for something. Even though people are all different and
may seem like they are merely existing, we all have different qualities
which are purposeful for something.
• Uses positive language to connote further positive ideas, for example
‘golden’, ‘winning’, ‘huddling’ and even ‘slanting rainfall’ is phrased in
a way which doesn’t allude to miserable weather.
• Ends poem with ‘This wall is beautiful’ – Ends on positive note,
unlike NTBS.
• ‘Seemingly unremarkable’ – double meaning. Positive meaning being
that it could simply ‘seem’ unremarkable, but could actually hold
potential.
• Man made wall actually benefits the environment, whereas
everything man made Larkin describes is just pointless and
therefore, not worth being built in the first place.
Dannie Abse