Philip Larkin's "Talking in Bed"

This marks a new stage in the narrator's emotions, as she is glum upon his exit. It is clearly evident that the speaker is worried about her husband's journey because of line sixteen, which states, "Through the Gorges of Ch'u-t'ang, of rock and whirling water." This line shows that the husband is travelling through dangerous terrain. Throughout the third stanza, the narrator is said to slowly transition into a depression phase, as she dearly misses her husband. In lines twenty-three to twenty-five, the narrator sees butterflies flying "two by two" in the garden, and she feels very depressed upon seeing this because the butterflies are all together with their spouses, while she isn't. In line twenty-six, the speaker uses imagery to describe her emotion. She fears that she might start to look pale because of her

Better said, those swallows and honeysuckles existed only because of that romance that just ended. And when the poet uses the simile "…drops of dew… like tears of the day," it also symbolizes the ending of the love affair.

The opening lines of the poem show how strong her feelings are for her husband. Bradstreet shows this by the use of a great example of a paradox, “if two were one, then surely we.” This shows that the magnitude of her love and affection is so deep that she’s comparing two beings as one. She praises her love for her husband so much

The study of any poem often begins with its imagery. Being the centralized idea behind the power of poetry, imagery isn’t always there to just give a mental picture when reading the poem, but has other purposes. Imagery can speak to the five senses using figurative language as well as help create a specific emotion that the author is trying to infuse within the poem. It helps convey a complete human experience a very minimal amount of words. In this group of poems the author uses imagery to show that humanity is characterized as lost, sorrowful and regretful, but nature is untainted by being free of mistakes and flaws and by taking time to take in its attributes it can help humans have a sense of peace, purity, and joy, as well as a sense of

The third stanza goes on to define the pain, only now in more emotional terms, such as "It hurts to thwart the reflexes / of grab, of clutch" (14-15), as well as the pain of continuously having to say good bye, each perhaps as if for the last time: "to love and let / go again and again" (15-16). These lines reinforce the impression that the first stanza's definition of "to love differently" is in fact an anti-freedom or state of emotional anarchy, now using words like "pester" to describe any separation; the poet is compelled "to remember / the lover who is not in the bed" (16), hinting at obsessive tendencies as being possible components of the relationship. We also learn that she believes love requires work, which she cannot do without her partner's assistance, and that this lack of cooperation frustrates her. She believes this neglected effort is the other party's fault by his failure to do his fair share, thereby leaving her own efforts ineffective, the whole of it characterized as an effort "that gutters like a candle in a cave / without air" (19-20). Her demands of this work are quite broad, encompassing being "conscious, conscientious and concrete" in her efforts and optimistically calling this work "constructive" (20-21) before ending the stanza.

The poem’s structure as a sonnet allows the speaker’s feelings of distrust and heartache to gradually manifest themselves as the poem’s plot progresses. Each quatrain develops and intensifies the speaker’s misery, giving the reader a deeper insight into his convoluted emotions. In the first quatrain, the speaker advises his former partner to not be surprised when she “see[s] him holding [his] louring head so low” (2). His refusal to look at her not only highlights his unhappiness but also establishes the gloomy tone of the poem. The speaker then uses the second and third quatrains to justify his remoteness; he explains how he feels betrayed by her and reveals how his distrust has led him

In stanza four the pronoun “you” is introduce. We assume its Collin prior relationship, as its only stanza that doesn’t contains Collin pet analogy and first evidence contributing to the theme. The metaphor shift to abstract when Collin deny her worthiness and what she meant to his life. But, as he subtracted himself to the “combination”, he was able to discover her value rather measuring his spouse love and intimacy. Repetitions occur, such as “awkward and bewildering” to represent the time when his spouse was companion to him, but he couldn’t reciprocate those same nurturing feelings back to her. In addition, his spouse “held” him more than he ever did. He regrets it now when he is holding his dog but the dog is incapable to measure that same actions and words because of law of nature. The last stanza line, “..now we are both lost in strange and distant neighborhood.”, is another metaphor reference the way a lost dog might feel to his lost love that can’t ever be the same

It is certainly implied that both of these poems are concerned with the ideal of true love, but we have seen that they differ quite dramatically with the authors' mindset and themes which they are attempting to portray. Both poems revolve around the consistency of love, whether existent or not, though their discrepancies are valid, it is these discrepancies, which provide readers with the conception and comprehension of what true love really is.

Sex described in this poem is between two people who are not in love, and it’s vividly elaborated throughout the poem. Olds brings foreplay, tenderness, and

5. Consider the title of the poem. How is it ironic? In what ways is the poem a love song?

Moreover, the speaker uses words that describe distance such as “far”(11) and “further”(3) that in this poem, perhaps referring to his relationships to the society. Even the first impression of the poem, the comical tone, now signifies the lightness meaninglessness of these connections without sincerity. This contrast between the two tones indicates how the speaker feels as if he is separated both physically and mentally from his surroundings like the society, his friends or even his family.

The poems are inspired by the love that a man has for a woman and in many instances how the scenery reminds him of his love. The thirteenth tale depicts a man who was torn between whether or not he should write to his lover. The first poem shows the woman’s feelings when he did not hear from the man for a long time and shows her in a heartbroken tone (78-9). It also shows that the woman too has conflicting emotions about her partner as she strongly dislikes not hearing from him, yet she it would not be very appealing for him to write her either. The man writes a poem in response to her, and as it says he is distraught and rushed the poem. He says to her that her requests are difficult for him to take and that it would be hard for him to heal his wounds of love lost (79). This tale and the poems from it show that there is much more that can be incited than if it were just the narrative. Without the poems, the emotional impact in the tale would not be as strong since there would not be the voice of the woman and her feelings towards the man and the man’s response to her. There easily could be a description of their interaction, but it would not be as powerful since it would not display the voices of the lovers and their views of their relationship.

In this case, the clouds are connected to the notion that humans will eventually disappear and that none of their actions will last. Percy Shelley in the next stanza compares humans to lyres; each time the lyre is struck, it plays a dissonant and unmelodious note. Just like the notes played, humans will always give differing responses at different times because they will have changed emotionally. The melodious tunes have been forgotten and unmelodious ones have taken their place; in comparison, the previous unity and harmony have been replaced by disunity and tension in human minds and mankind. Shelley compares man to clouds and lyres in order to express his powerful reasoning that humans are undergoing change at all times.

I interpreted this poem as a very sad one. A love unrequited by the pursued. In the first two lines the poem tells you to forget about the love you share and hear a tale of this. Not to literally forget, but possibly put aside. The man is a winter breeze, cold and rough and sort of roams the land. The woman is a window flower, shut off from the outside. This sets up the separation.

There is no perfection in the world, so if there is love, there is separation. Through the first three stanzas, its language, its voice, and its imagery are used in an increasing level. Besides the words