This document provides an analysis of the Philip Larkin poem "For Sidney Bechet" in 6 paragraphs. It summarizes the themes and imagery in the poem, including Larkin's portrayal of New Orleans, his use of jazz rhythms and structures, and how the music allows Larkin to forget his problems and relive memories of love and happiness. It also briefly compares this poem to two other Larkin poems that also involve themes of music, memory, and love.

1. For Sidney Bechet

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3. What is the poem about?
• Larkin writes about the
Jazz composer Sidney Bechet who
he was a big fan of.
• In the poem New Orleans (birth
place of jazz) is described, filled
with happy people and music.
• There is a positive reflection
of memories, reminded by
music, about love and happy
times.

4. The Structure
• Larkin makes the poem
have a jazz beat, and the rhyme
scheme and stanza scheme is
unusual and unexpected like a
jazz song.
• The poem is an apostrophe
because Larkin talks to
someone as though they were
present.

5. The First Stanza
• In the first stanza the
music is described with the ‘shakes
like New Orleans reflect in the water’.
This simile is split over two lines,
the word ‘shakes’ put at the
end to ripple onto the next line. There
is a theme of water in this stanza.
• The poem is set up as a cause
and effect, how the music causes
people to imagine different places.

6. The Second Stanza
• The first scenario of love
and beauty is described in the
second stanza.
• ‘Balconies, flower-baskets and
quadrilles’ are romantic and
pretty features. A quadrille is a
square dance for couples.
• Everyone is ‘making love’ and
‘going shares’ which means
taking it easy. This is a calm,
relaxed and fun atmosphere.

7. The Third Stanza
• The third stanza is about
the darker side of New Orleans.
‘Storyville’ is the red-light district.
• Larkin describes the ‘sporting-house girls’ (prostitutes)
as ‘like circus tigers’. Larkin places women in
a negative, degrading view that’s quite sexist. He
compares the ‘girls’ as animals, however they
are tamed because they are being controlled.
Before this the ‘tigers’ were wild and
dangerous.
• Larkin refers to the bible that states ‘who
can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far
above rubies’.
• If women were priced above rubies this could
mean that they were expensive.

8. The Fourth Stanza
• In this stanza Larkin
describes the wannabes, that sit in
the audience. ‘Manques’ are
would-be scholars. The word also
meaning ‘to lack’ in French, the
scholars unfulfilled of their dreams.
• Larkin uses a simile ‘like old
plaids’ to describe the
audience. Plaids could mean
they are interwoven and engrossed
into the music as its close to them.

9. The Fifth Stanza
• This stanza describes
how music affects Larkin himself.
He uses the pronouns ‘me’ and ‘’my’.
• The music makes him feel the way
love is said to make people feel.
However this could be a paradox
because he thinks he loves music,
but doesn’t know because
he’s never loved.
• ‘Like an enormous yes’ is a
caesura, this making an emphasise
on Larkin’s positive view.

10. The Sixth Stanza
• Larkin says that music
understands him, and speaks to him
like a person; it is the ‘natural noise
of good’.
• ‘Long-haired grief and scored pity’,
implies that when Larkin listens
to music he forgets his problems.
This relates to the African Americans,
how jazz music was based on their
music and ‘scored pity’ is a pun
on a musical score, referring to the
pity felt when listening to this genre.

11. Comparison – Love Songs In Age
• Larkin wrote the poem
about an elderly widow who
finds the sheet music of some
songs she used to play when
she was young, and the cello
plays a version of Bechet’s blues
as a nostalgic song making
her relive memories.
• Both poems are about music
and how they relate to memories
and love.

12. Comparison – An Arundel Tomb
• In this poem Larkin has
a positive view on love and life, with
a happier attitude compared to his
usual themes.
• Love lasts through time,
whether this be as a sculptural
tomb or in the form of music.