|
|
|
|
| |
In frames as large as rooms that face all ways
And block the ends of streets with giant loaves,
Sc .........
........................
........................
read full text >>
Philip Larkin
|
|
| |
| Comments about this poem (Essential Beauty by Philip Larkin) |
|
Click here to write your comments about this poem (Essential Beauty by Philip Larkin)
Vanni Pule' (2/3/2008 1:27:00 AM)
Because they are as large as rooms, Larkin’s billboards block the ends of streets and create their own ‘reality’ that does not necessarily conform with the concept of what they should be representing. They impair one’s vision of reality. They screen the reality of death symbolised by the graves and cover the sordid poverty found in the slums. In Larkin the large bill-boards are non-representational symbols of an essential beauty that is, nevertheless, bitter and disappointing when the truth about its reality is contemplated. They are clear, idyllic groves but not of what life really is but ‘of how life should be’. The widely unquestioned notion that balance, happiness, wealth, ideal climate and rejuvenation seem to depend on advertised consumables like Oxo cubes, is presented as a ludicrous sham.
In the second stanza, the tennis-player who is vomiting in the lavatory, perhaps as a result of too much alcohol, is conveniently ignored in the advertisement for beer. Neither are the penalties of old age underlined in the advertisement for Granny Graveclothes’ tea.
Towards the end of ‘Essential Beauty’ we encounter the elusive femme fatale – “that unfocused she” – a recurrent motif in Larkin’s poetry. She seduces the punter with the advertisement for cigarettes. She frustrates and seduces the man because she does not deliver what she seems to be promising – ultimate sexual satisfaction. Moreover, she never provides the actual satisfaction of the cigarette, nor does she even light a match, but when she smiles with recognition, everything goes completely dark succumbing to the inevitable mortality. |
Philip Housiaux (1/26/2008 6:40:00 AM)
Yes a more opaque one with the complexity of the long lines
but I found myself identifying larkin's observations of the homes
and lives of the elderly. |
|
|
|
|
Philip Larkin
Free
Poetry E-Book: