Philip Larkin: Poems Literary Elements

Larkin often writes his poetry with a first-person point of view. This speaker is often cynical and truthful.

Larkin often uses traditional aspects of rhyme and meter in his poetry. For example, in "Church Going", Larkin uses iambic pentameter. Often, Larkin's style is so conversational it does not seem as though he is writing in a traditional meter.

In "High Windows", Larkin uses simile to describe how old traditions will be "pushed to one side like an outdated combine harvester".

In "This Be The Verse", Larkin uses much alliteration, using many words beginning with the letter F. One example is the line "they fill you with the faults they had".

In "This Be The Verse", Larkin explores how parents, who should look after their children, are ultimately cause harm to their children.

20th Century Poetry

Many of Larkin's poems are set in England. They discuss pertinent issues of 20th century England, including social class, sexuality and tradition.

Cynical

Antagonist often include figures of tradition, such as politicians and parents.

Conflict in Larkin's poetry is often a result of society and tradition.

Many of Larkin's poems move from a small, localized idea to a greater idea. The climax of his poems is usually the realization of this greater idea.

In High Windows, the term "paradise" in the first stanza, foreshadows the spiritual image at the end of the poem.

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Larkin's poem "Sad Steps" is an allusion to a poem written by Sir Phillip Sidney, a sonnet called "Astrophil and Stella."

In "At Grass", Larkin uses the word "silks" to describe jockeys.

In "Aubade", Larkin writes that "telephones crouch, getting ready to ring".

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Larkin uses onomatopoeia in the poem "Ambulances": "Brings closer what is left to come/ And dulls to distance all we are."