3. Philip Larkin
Philip Larkin was born in 1922 August 9 in the place Coventry . Philip Larkin is a
major British poet and typical representative of a new movement in English poetry .
His early poems shows the influence of W.B.Yeats . Larkin and other poets of the new
movement repeat the intellectual poetry of Ezra Pound and W.H.Auden . Larkin’s
poetry is distinguished for its final sense of form , clarity of expression , intelligent
craftsman ship and thoughtful realism . His Notable works include “The Whitsun
Weddings (1964), High Windows (1974)”etc.
5. About the poem
Larkin describes a stopping-train journey southwards from Paragon Station,
Kingston upon Hull, where Larkin was a librarian at the university, on a hot Whitsun
Saturday afternoon. It has always been supposed the poem was based on an actual
train journey Larkin made in 1955 on Whitsun Saturday, a day which was popular for
weddings at that time[1] though since there was a rail strike on that weekend Larkin
scholar John Osborne now thinks the journey an unlikely one to have taken place.
Larkin's letters mention two journeys, one to Grantham (not at Whit, some weddings),
and one to London (not at Whit, no weddings), that may have been conflated in the
poem.
6. The technical brilliance of Larkin
‘The Whitsun Weddings’ is technically perfect . The poem takes us through
the English country side to the urban landscapes . The very movement is that of a
leisurely journey , the lines frequently pausing as if at so many stations . Just as a
train halts and proceeds the verse also shows enjoyment , the continuation of sense
without a pause beyond the end of the line . The rhyme scheme is ab ab cde cde .
The rhyming scheme helps to link beginnings to end and end to beginnings,
suggesting the jaults and movement of a slow train . After the first two stanzas the
poem proceeds through interconnected stanzas, just like the compartments of a
train . The descriptions are highly realistic , there is a logical development of ideas
and a regular stanza structure .
7. THEME AND LANGUAGE OF THE POEM
Thematically also the poem is important . The three most important aspects of
human life are birth , population and death according to T.S. Eliot . The poet invests
the railway journey with importance by peopling it with marriage parties . A marriage
can be successful or a total failure. Whatever the outcome the participants are
changed forever. While the couples are totally absorbed in the landscape , Larkin sits
looking at them thinking about the future of their married life . Then the train stops
and a sense of decline and doom comes to the poet . There is the inevitable sense of
falling as arrows fall . The rain means dampness and cold . The images of arrows and
rain also suggest the vigor of the couples . Rain is the symbol of fertility also . That life
is a progression , toward decay and destruction is recurring theme in Larkin’s poem .
Here , it is mixed with happiness and the sense of doom , the sense of alienation is
also brought out well in the poem . The poems greatness lies in the way in which
seeing and understanding the actions of the different couples harmonizes their
various experiences into a unified impression .
8. language
The description in the poem is graphic as is always the case with the imagery in
Larkin’s poems . The poet saw the backs of the houses on the way , the rivers broad and
level , wide farms , the cattle casting shadows on the ground canals with ‘industrial froth ‘
and ‘acres of dismantled cars’ . The poem also contains a graphic description of the people
on the railway platforms and the people getting into the train . The girls are described as
‘pomaded’, the fathers with ‘seamy foreheads’ , the mothers ‘loud and fat’ and an uncle
‘shouting's smut’. The references to the newly married couples are also interesting . The
poem is full of chronical and satirical phrases. Marriage described not only as a joyful
occasion but also as a ‘happy funeral’ and a ‘religious wounding’.
When the train finally stops , there is a sense of decline and doom to the poet . Like
the train which stops at the terminus , with passengers lacking bonds of love, going their
separate ways , there is the note of inevitable dissolution . The poem ends on a note of
happiness and the sense of doom on the part of the poet. The speeding arrow symbolizes
the train. It falls somewhere, there is rain germination , energy of life. When the train
comes to a halt , life also grinds to a halt . There is the inevitable sense of falling and
dissolution both in the trains journey and in life . Thus the sense of alienation in the
modern world . It is also brought out well in the poem .
9. The poets who influenced Philip Larkin
Thomas hardy William BUTLER YEATS
