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"Of course I was drugged, and so heavily I did not regain
consciousness until the next morning.  I was horrified to
discover that I had been ruined, and for some days I was inconsolable,
and cried like a child to be killed or sent back to my aunt."

—Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor

Even so distant, I can taste the grief,
Bitter and sharp with stalks, he made you gulp.
The sun's occasional print, the brisk brief
Worry of wheels along the street outside
Where bridal London bows the other way,
And light, unanswerable and tall and wide,
Forbids the scar to heal, and drives
Shame out of hiding.  All the unhurried day,
Your mind lay open like a drawer of knives.

Slums, years, have buried you.  I would not dare
Console you if I could.  What can be said,
Except that suffering is exact, but where
Desire takes charge, readings will grow erratic?
For you would hardly care
That you were less deceived, out on that bed,
Than he was, stumbling up the breathless stair
To burst into fulfillment's desolate attic.

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© by owner. provided at no charge for educational purposes

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Deceptions by Philip Larkin at Allpoetry

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Comments & analysis: Of course I was drugged, and so heavily I did not regain / consciousness until the next m

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Why should I let the toad work
Squat on my life?
Can't I use my wit as a pitchfork
And drive the brute off?

Six days of the week it soils
With its sickening poison -
Just for paying a few bills!
That's out of proportion.

Lots of folk live on their wits:
Lecturers, lispers,
Losers, loblolly-men, louts-
They don't end as paupers;

Lots of folk live up lanes
With fires in a bucket,
Eat windfalls and tinned sardines-
They seem to like it.

Their nippers have got bare feet,
Their unspeakable wives
Are skinny as whippets - and yet
No one actually starves.

Ah, were I courageous enough
To shout, Stuff your pension!
But I know, all too well, that's the stuff
That dreams are made on:

For something sufficiently toad-like
Squats in me, too;
Its hunkers are heavy as hard luck,
And cold as snow,

And will never allow me to blarney
My way of getting
The fame and the girl and the money
All at one sitting.

I don't say, one bodies the other
One's spiritual truth;
But I do say it's hard to lose either,
When you have both.

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Comments & analysis: Why should I let the toad work / Squat on my life? / Can’t I use my wit as a pitchfork / A

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Once I am sure there’s nothing going on
I step inside, letting the door thud shut.
Another church: matting, seats, and stone,
And little books; sprawlings of flowers, cut
For Sunday, brownish now; some brass and stuff

Up at the holy end; the small neat organ;
And a tense, musty, unignorable silence,
Brewed God knows how long. Hatless, I take off
My cycle-clips in awkward reverence,

Move forward, run my hand around the font.
From where I stand, the roof looks almost new –
Cleaned, or restored? Someone would know: I don’t.
Mounting the lectern, I peruse a few
Hectoring large-scale verses, and pronounce
‘Here endeth’ much more loudly than I’d meant.
The echoes snigger briefly. Back at the door
I sign the book, donate an Irish sixpence,
Reflect the place was not worth stopping for.

Yet stop I did: in fact I often do,
And always end much at a loss like this,
Wondering what to look for; wondering, too,
When churches fall completely out of use
What we shall turn them into, if we shall keep
A few cathedrals chronically on show,
Their parchment, plate and pyx in locked cases,
And let the rest rent-free to rain and sheep.
Shall we avoid them as unlucky places?

Or, after dark, will dubious women come
To make their children touch a particular stone;
Pick simples for a cancer; or on some
Advised night see walking a dead one?
Power of some sort or other will go on
In games, in riddles, seemingly at random;
But superstition, like belief, must die,
And what remains when disbelief has gone?
Grass, weedy pavement, brambles, buttress, sky,

A shape less recognisable each week,
A purpose more obscure. I wonder who
Will be the last, the very last, to seek
This place for what it was; one of the crew
That tap and jot and know what rood-lofts were?
Some ruin-bibber, randy for antique,
Or Christmas-addict, counting on a whiff
Of gown-and-bands and organ-pipes and myrrh?
Or will he be my representative,

Bored, uninformed, knowing the ghostly silt
Dispersed, yet tending to this cross of ground
Through suburb scrub because it held unspilt
So long and equably what since is found
Only in separation – marriage, and birth,
And death, and thoughts of these – for which was built
This special shell? For, though I’ve no idea
What this accoutred frowsty barn is worth,
It pleases me to stand in silence here;

A serious house on serious earth it is,
In whose blent air all our compulsions meet,
Are recognised, and robed as destinies.
And that much never can be obsolete,
Since someone will forever be surprising
A hunger in himself to be more serious,
And gravitating with it to this ground,
Which, he once heard, was proper to grow wise in,
If only that so many dead lie round.

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Once I am sure there’s nothing going on I step inside, letting the door thud shut. Another church: matting, seats, and stone,…

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Endlessly, time-honoured irritant,
A bubble is restively forming at your tip.
Burst it as fast as we can –
It will grow again until we begin dying.

Silently it inflates, till we’re enclosed
And forced to start the struggle to get out:
Bestial, intent, real.
The wet spark comes, the bright blown walls collapse,

But what sad scapes we cannot turn from then:
What ashen hills! what salted, shrunken lakes!
How leaden the ring looks,
Birmingham magic all discredited,

And how remote that bare and sunscrubbed room,
Intensely far, that padlocked cube of light
We neither define nor prove,
Where you, we dream, obtain no right of entry.

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Sorry, we have to make sure you’re a human before we can show you this page.

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The wind blew all my wedding-day,
And my wedding-night was the night of the high wind;
And a stable door was banging, again and again,
That he must go and shut it, leaving me
Stupid in candlelight, hearing rain,
Seeing my face in the twisted candlestick,
Yet seeing nothing. When he came back
He said the horses were restless, and I was sad
That any man or beast that night should lack
The happiness I had.

Now in the day
All's ravelled under the sun by the wind's blowing.
He has gone to look at the floods, and I
Carry a chipped pail to the chicken-run,
Set it down, and stare. All is the wind
Hunting through clouds and forests, thrashing
My apron and the hanging cloths on the line.
Can it be borne, this bodying-forth by wind
Of joy my actions turn on, like a thread
Carrying beads? Shall I be let to sleep
Now this perpetual morning shares my bed?
Can even death dry up
These new delighted lakes, conclude
Our kneeling as cattle by all-generous waters?

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Comments & analysis: The wind blew all my wedding-day, / And my wedding-night was the night of the high wind;

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Through this whole collection, Deceptions was, at first, one of the poems that I found the most incomprehensible. It almost seemed as if Larkin was excusing the behaviour of the perpetrator, but instead, he was actually detailing how the victim is the 'least deceived' in this situation, as the culprit will never reach the satisfaction he thought he would gain through his transgressive acts and is so 'more deceived'.

This comment under the above YouTube video details exactly how I perceived the poem before coming to University: "moving and scary. It is not about defending the rapist or sympathizing with his desires for fulfillment saying that they are deceptive. we can see the futility of chasing the fulfillment of a desire with the idea that performing the act would lead to satisfaction. It is something we do everyday. It is a concept on which the entire consumer based society is structured. Larkin separates the strands of desire, fulfillment and action and his genius lies in his craftsmanship and asethetic sensibility."

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"Deceptions" by Philip Larkin (read by Tom O'Bedlam)

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"'Toads' by Phillip Larkin explores the confines of everyday life. Throughout, he uses a frog as a way to depict duel pressures in his life."

Before coming to University, I also held this simplistic view of the poem, 'Toads'. Whilst the review is accurate, it does not hold any critical depth, and simply states what the poem is about, rather than a thorough critical analysis of how and why Larkin used the techniques that he enlisted throughout. I myself, when I studied this poem during A-Levels, did not take into account what was happening in Larkin's life in 1953 (the year 'Toads' was written) to have this deep detestation about having to work.

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This video shows exactly the type of analysis I would have been doing during English Literature A-Level. The analysis is only goes as far as describing the words that Larkin chose to include and ignores the overarching themes as to why Larkin chose to include them. The analysis lacks any depth and understanding of what the speaker is truly attempting to convey about the concept of work.

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In ICA I, I learnt of Marcuse' definition of culture and civilisation. Marcuse defines civilisation as "the realm of necessity, of socially necessary work and behaviour, where man is not really himself and in his own element but subject to heteronomy, to external conditions and needs'. (Marcuse, 1965, p.192)

Through Marcuse's words, this opened up another discussion for me as to how the concept of work is socially ingrained within us, as it has been dictated since the start of capitalism, that to live, you must earn first. Marcuse details that work is an essential part of us, something which I did not consider when studying 'Toads' during A-Levels. Due to my now understanding of 'civilisation', work is not only something distressing to simply just the speaker but is a shared experience for all, as work is instilled within all of us, regardless if we wish to do it or not. As well as this, in 'Why Marx' by Eagleton, he details that Sigmund Freud believed that without labour, we would simply serve our libidos and so it was economic necessity which made us engage with social activity, again allowing me to understand another level of 'Toads.'

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JSTOR is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources.

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In Week Three of Intro to Cultural Analysis, we learnt of Ideology and Hegemony. The definition of hegemony I understood was that it is "a situation in which a provisional alliance of certain social groups can exert ‘total social authority’ over other subordinate groups." Through this learnt meaning, it opens up a dual interpretation of Larkin's 'Toads'. Not only is the speaker perhaps criticising the essence of work, but also the hierarchies of power that set this system up. Work is an effect of capitalism, and that is perhaps overall what Larkin wished to get across with this poem.

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In Week Two of ICA II, in Literature I with Eric, he taught us to take heed of the environment upon which a poem is written. With references to Wordsworth and his backdrop of the Lake District as well as Bishop's history of the rise of fascism in her childhood, it raises the question for me as to what was Larkin's environment at the time that influenced him to write this poem? Was he sat in his nine to five office job, detailing the hardship of his own work through this poem? When analysing 'Toads' now, I can include what the potential outside environment was that guided Larkin to write this poem.

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"Philip Larkin's "Church Going" may initially seem like a lament about fading faith. However, it is much more than that. It invites readers to explore the human desire for meaning in a world where traditional religious beliefs are weakening, as well as an exploration of the evolution of physical spaces through time."

Before University, I did understand the meaning of this poem as this was one of the poem's I focused most on and gave most thought to during my time in A-Level's. I knew of Larkin's aversion to religion and how 'Church Going' is not really focused on religion, but rather the effect of the absence of religion upon our society.

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After the lesson of 'Identity and Sexual Difference', it led to me doing further reading on Freud's work, "The Future of an Illusion". In this work, Freud explores man's journey with religion and how faith can change a man's life.

In the novel, Freud states "Religion, in this reading, is the universal human obsessional neurosis; like the child's, it stemmed from the Oedipus complex, the relationship to the father." (Freud, 2004, p.55)

This adds another level of depth for me, as it further explores how when analysing 'Church Going', I can discuss how there seems to be an inherent part of human society that is intertwined with religion, almost an obsession with how it explains the meaning of life. Freud's work further shows how even if church is 'going' away from us, there will still be a history of religion forever threaded with human society.

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In ICA II, in especially Literature I as well as my other modules, it has taught me that personal reading around my chosen topic will allow me to explore and explain in much more depth, than just simply stating what I wish to say, with a lack of cultural analysis. The reading linked: "To Keep our Metaphysics warm; A Study of 'Church Going' by Phillip Larkin" by R.N Parkinson is an extensive analysis of the poem, that allows me to understand it much more than I did during A-Levels. There is an analysis of stanza, rhythm, as well as the content within the poem itself, which, if I read during my time in sixth-form, would have allowed me to reach much further in my study of 'Church Going'.

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‘To Keep our Metaphysics warm’: A study of “Church Going” by Philip Larkin on JSTOR

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R. N. PARKINSON, ‘To Keep our Metaphysics warm’: A study of “Church Going” by Philip Larkin, Critical Survey, Vol. 5, No. 3 (WINTER 1971), pp. 224-233

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In the first week of ICA I, we learnt that culture can also have a negative side as well as a positive side. Barbara used an example from Herder in his work, 'Ideas on the Philosophy of the History of Mankind'. Herder explores the idea that whilst culture has a benefit within in society, it has also been used as an excuse to colonise and disrupt other regions of the world. In the case of 'Deceptions', the culture of patriarchy has affected the young girl, which is not something we focused on in A-Levels. We were only taught to analyse just the poem, instead of focusing on the societal factors that led to the assault of the girl, such as the culture of patriarchy. The male perpetrator, due to being in a male-orientated society, believed that this act would give him a sense of fulfilment, something which was not considered during my A-Level studies.

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Johann Gottfried Herder, Gregory Martin Moore

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📖 [PDF] Ideas for the Philosophy of the History of Mankind by Johann Gottfried Herder | 9780691255699, 9780691255705

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Start reading 📖 Ideas for the Philosophy of the History of Mankind online and get access to an unlimited library of academic and non-fiction books on Perlego.

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In the lecture on Digital Cultures/Memes, the topic of intertextuality was discussed. In Limor Shifman's 'Memes in digital culture', she states that "intertextuality: memes often relate to each other in complex, creative, and surprising ways" (Shifman, 2014, p.2). This led me to researching within The Less Deceived collection of poems as to if any of them held any intertextuality, to which 'Deceptions' does.

At first, Larkin had named this poem 'The Less Deceived' before changing it to 'Deceptions', showing that the themes in this poem are central to the collection as a whole. But, the intertextuality comes into play as 'The Less Deceived' is a reference from Shakespeare's Hamlet, whereby Ophelia claimed that she was the 'more deceived' of the two. This suggests that Larkin perhaps wished for 'Deceptions' to be the poem on which he educated and made his readers 'less deceived' to avoid Ophelia's fate. If I learnt this during my A-level studies, it would have added much more depth onto my analysis.

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IEEE Xplore, delivering full text access to the world’s highest quality technical literature in engineering and technology. | IEEE Xplore

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To me, 'Dry-Point' always seemed like a poem that was quite different from the others within the collection. The poem details the moments before, during, and after sexual release, a stark contrast to the rest of Larkin's work.

I had a very simplistic view of 'Dry-Point', as when annotating the poem, we simply explored purely what Larkin was telling us, rather than an in-depth review as to why and what he meant through this poem.

We went through every stanza and only picked out select words to analyse, rather than analysing all of the poem, to figure out his complete meaning.

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Freud in his Psychoanalysis theory also relates to sexuality. Freud states that our sexuality starts from a young age, observed through his study of Little Hans. Sexuality is intertwined with society, not only as means to reproduce, but also for personal pleasure. Dry-Point focuses on sexuality outside of reproduction purposes, but not necessarily for pleasure. Psychoanalysis adds another level of depth onto this poem as it allows me to further analyse it using this theory. Larkin actually opposes Freud's theory as the speaker does not gain any satisfaction from the act, and is instead left displeased. But this, itself, regardless of the fact that sexual pleasure is not gratifying for the speaker, is an analysis that can be linked to Freud's work on Psychoanalysis theory.

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In ICA II, I learnt that to properly analyse a piece of literature extensively, you must not focus on themes as that shortens the depth of your analysis. I used to analyse specific lexis that would link to a theme, in order to create paragraphs to examine. Now, when analysing I would interpret everything, such as in the first stanza:

Endlessly, time-honoured irritant,
A bubble is restively forming at your tip.
Burst it as fast as we can –
It will grow again until we begin dying.

'Endlessly'- An uncontrollable, constant sexual desire.

'Time-honoured irritant'- A juxtaposition of typical sexual release, seems disappointed and frustrated by his release.

'A bubble is restively forming at your tip'- It seems to describe the peak of his sexual release.

'Burst it as fast as we can'- It is something that he perhaps only does because it is a societal pressure. 'As fast'- Something he finds no pleasure in doing so.

'It will grow again until we begin dying'- It is a constant in our lives, sexual desire is not something we can escape until death.

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On the Philip Larkin Society website, one member wrote the review, "I have always been a keen reader (and occasional writer) of poetry. I first came across Larkin when studying for English A level many years ago. Subsequently I maintained an interest, and more recently bought the collected poems, where I first read ‘Wedding Wind’. I like this poem because it is unusually joyful for Larkin, particularly the closing lines – ‘these new delighted lakes…’.".

I hold the same opinion of the poem as this reviewer. Compared to the rest of the poems within this collection, 'Wedding-Wind' holds a much lighter tone and ends in a hopeful note. As a Movement writer, Larkin typically wrote poems that rejected romanticism and focused on realism. However, this poem demonstrates the essence of romanticism, through its use of pastoral imagery as well as the fact that this is his only poem in the collection where the speaker is believed to be a woman, hence why, like the reviewer, I hold this poem in high regard, compared to his other poems.

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Wedding-Wind – The Philip Larkin Society

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In Raymond William's 'Keywords', he defines the early meaning of 'culture' as "a noun of process: the tending of something, basically crops or animals" (Williams, 1985, p.62).

'Wedding-Wind' is a poem that seems to be set in an olden agriculture environment, whereby William's definition can be applied. 'Wedding-Wind includes the pastoral imagery of "carry a chipped pail to the chicken-run" and "my apron and hanging cloths on the line", which turns the poem into an object of culture, as the woman within this poem 'tends' to the work on the farm and finds peace within doing so. It allows me to culturally analyse the poem instead of just critically analyse, as culture seems to define the speaker's life in the second stanza.

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In Literature II, Eric gave a lecture on Shakespeare and stated, when referring to the Shakespearian play, "Twelfth Night" that "the logic of desire...is that not being fulfilled is being fulfilled." The want for what you truly desire pushes you to fulfil that want.

In terms of 'Wedding Wind', in the first stanza, the speaker feels awkward, unhappy and unfulfilled by the lack of what is expected on a wedding night. Larkin uses the juxtaposed romantic imagery, 'twisted candlestick' to highlight that lack of desired intimacy.

However, in the second stanza, the speaker now does feel fulfilled by her role as a married woman as her desires are completed:

"Can even death dry up
These new delighted lakes, conclude
Our kneeling as cattle by all-generous waters?"