Isolation and Confronting the Cultural Norms in Philip Larkin´s Poems

Being punished as a young child, life seemed harsh and uneasy. The way parents would yell at you, tell you what to do, what not to do, and they always seemed to have gotten in the way of doing what us children wanted to do. It was all done for a reason however. The "cruelty" our parents showed us was out of love. They just want to use their experience to help guide our lives to success. With their guidance we are given opportunities to change some of the things we do for the better. Parents were raised a generation before us, therefore making them not as "chat-friendly" as someone whose our age. Mom and dad have helped in so many ways that we would not be able to name them all. From teaching us about nutrition to what words not to

Whether you realise it or not, the act of representation is a constant and significant aspect of our lives. It defines and influences our perceptions of things in either a positive or negative way. One poem that I particularly admire from Harwood’s collection is ‘The violets’ , as it recognises the inevitable act of evolving without our childhood memories. The art of growing up and moving forward is only fully accomplished when we recognise and accept the experiences and explorations of our childhood. Harwood’s poetic style reflects her conservative, traditional and religious upbringing, as well as her interests in literature, philosophy and music. As one of Australia’s finest poets, and it is an honour to introduce Harwood’s latest poem anthology.

Bruce Dawe, one of the most influential Australian poets of his time was known for using his poems as a way to efficiently discuss the matters in society of his time and how this follows through generation, thus becoming a significant matter for his modern audience. Both Dawe’s poems The Not So Good Earth and Up The Wall have successfully demonstrated the issues of the complacency of our society towards the world around us and their issues and the disconnection this thenceforth creates in everyday life and how this impacts the individual. Dawe’s poem, Up The Wall, truly validates the impact of the suburban, everyday lifestyle on the individual and how the loneliness this creates can push someone to the edge. Dawe’s use of onomatopoeia with the abrupt words of “shrieked” and “screams” really imposes that internal struggle the woman was experiencing.

Our identity is inimitable, yet ironically it is affected by society and enigmatic forces that define our external relationships. This inextricable link between identity and social environment not only shape our identity, but gives us a sense of purpose, however when we fail to establish our sense of congruity with society through metaphysical acceptance, as a result of social isolation we can feel an abyss within our lives often forcing us to look into our inner self, as exemplified in Gwen Harwood’s poetry, especially her poems “At Mornington” and “Mother Who Gave Me Life”. These also reflect and force us to explore the impact time has on people and how this can inevitably lead to a reassessment of one’s life.

Larkin uses imagery to convey feelings of death, such as when Larkin says, “he was at the Bodies”, this has connotations of a place for dead people and it emphasizes the deprived and unappealing qualities of Mr. Bleaney’s surroundings. Larkin continues with this theme of the darker side of life when

Poetry can sometimes allow one to explore the unknown. However, in some works of poetry, one can realise that some known ideas or values remain relevant to current society. This is certainly applicable to T.S. Eliot’s poems, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Rhapsody on a Windy Night. Eliot’s manipulation of poetic techniques in both these poems allows the responder to realise that some ideas prevail in both modern and post-modern society. These poems explore the unknown phenomena of the obscurity regarding the purpose and meaning of life. This unknown phenomena causes the persona in both texts to resort to a sense of isolation or alienation. Eliot uses poetic techniques such as metaphors and personification to convey his ideas.

The concept of the malign nature of the tenement is developed throughout the first stanza with Crichton Smith exploring his own role in his mother 's confinement. He tells the reader that whilst he drove away, his mother would 'wave from the window. ' Again the poet successfully employs alliterative words to draw our attention - this time to the image of his frail mother still lovingly 'waving ' from her prison 'window '. This notion is supported by Crichton Smith comparing himself to

To some, Billy Collins’ The Rain in Portugal may seem to be a collection of random poems that have no correlation. At first sight, an individual may be confused while skimming through this book as to what the poems mean and how they all piece together. The poems in The Rain in Portugal all have one aspect in common; there is no rhyme scheme. Not a single poem rhymes with the next, let alone within itself. By doing this, Collins breaks the normality of basic poem writing—lines having to rhyme with one another—and explores his own take on free verse writing, which leaves the audience to form their own interpretation of the work. Majority of the poems within the book correlate with the speaker either reminiscing back in time, getting lost in the thought of the present, or predicting events of the future, which somehow include his reoccurring feeling of loneliness. Though this book has three different sections, each with its own collection of poems, the theme of loneliness is inserted within each section with one or two poems solely focusing on this topic. As a whole, this book provokes the audience to think and examine more in depth what Collins is attempting to portray through his seemingly simplistic writing.

Throughout Jimmy’s prison life, he had become inspired on writing about his past. He would express himself in his writing from dream journeys he would take into his past. He used this travels to escape the inclined contributor to hostility in prison. As his writing got better Jimmy engaged in writing poetry. To his

mind. It suggest the poet see it as love or nothing and that he was

Poetry has a role in society, not only to serve as part of the aesthetics or of the arts. It also gives us a view of what the society is in the context of when it was written and what the author is trying to express through words. The words as a tool in poetry may seem ordinary when used in ordinary circumstance. Yet, these words can hold more emotion and thought, however brief it was presented.

Published in 1997, Marie Howe’s anthology of poems, What the Living Do was written as an elegy to her brother, John, who passed away due to AIDS. Howe’s anthology is written without metaphor to document the loss she felt after her brother’s death. Although What the Living Do is written as an anthology, this collection allows for individual poems to stand alone but also to work together to tell an overarching story. Using the poetic devices of alliteration, enjambment, repetition and couplets, Howe furthers her themes of gender and loss throughout her poems in her anthology.

In the next stanza, he starts to compare his life to other’s. He mentions how he heard that one man “walked out on the whole crowd”, and this leaves him feeling uncomfortable. It is not normal for someone to go against the majority, and Larkin acknowledges that. However, the author later says “Surely I can, if he did?”. Now we know that the anxious feeling Larkin had was actually restlessness, and maybe jealousy too. He wants to defy the norm, and do things his own way, yet something is holding him back. He knows that he could do it if he tried, but he fails to take action. Perhaps, just the reassuring thought of “I am capable of doing my own thing” is enough for him; just like how we

Memories play a significant role in the poetry of Carol Ann Duffy, particularly her recollections of childhood places and events. The poem “Originally,” published in The Other Country (1990), draws specifically from memories of Duffy's family's move from Scotland to England when she and her siblings were very young. The first-born child, Duffy was just old enough to feel a deep sense of personal loss and fear as she traveled farther and farther away from the only place she had known as “home” and the family neared its alien destination. This sentiment is captured in “Originally,” in which it is described in the rich detail and defining language of both the child who has had the experience and the adult who recalls

(146) Larkin thus gives the impression that the reality of life as it presents itself to him falls blatantly short of what he expected. This disillusionment is particularly prominent when it comes to an assessment of what he has, or rather has not, achieved so far in life. More than once Larkin indicates the feeling that his lifetime passes unused. He talks about 'time/