Larkin’s use of language Essay

The poems that I have chosen to comment on from the collection The Whitsun Weddings by Philip Larkin ar here(predicate), zip to be said and Faith Healing. I have chosen to write about these three because they are all very different in terms of theme, language, verse form and Larkins message and purpose. Here is the opening poem of The Whitsun Weddings. It locates the reader in Larkins England and centres around a voyage the protagonist is make from London to Northumberland via Larkins hometown of Hull.Larkin uses a range of language and writing devices to express his feelings and at times his prejudices finished his poetry and he does this especially well in Here. The first stanza begins with slew east. The word swerving suggests a dangerous thrust and a deprivation of reserve from the person or daintyg that is swerving. When psyche swerves it is usually to avoid something so by using the word swerving Larkin is immediately presenting the reader with a sense of avoidance and lack of control.Larkin then goes on to say that the fields are too thin and thistled to be called meadows. This shows that he is passing through an area of land, which can non quite be classed as countryside only is not quite urban. This could possibly be a representation of how Larkin is feeling at the time about spiritedness because even the countryside is not genuine therefore Larkin may be commenting on the falsity of life because of its middle state.The words Thin and thistled are harsh sounding words that make up alliteration. This alliteration may have been apply to mimic the gentle hissing sound of the train or can piteous along the track or road. The harsh sounding words are probably applied as a vent for Larkins disdain on a philosophical level for the falsity and lack of true meaning in life and on a smaller level for the land he is passing through that is not quite beautiful enough to be countryside.A technique that interests me is employ in the line harsh-nam ed halt. This phrase uses a repetition of the /h/ sound, which is quite a heavy(a) sound to pronounce and therefore rattling halts the readers rhythm. This includes alliteration of the /h/ sound but also a kind of onomatopoeia because the word halt is actually a word that sounds like a stoppage or halt and actively brings the reader to a momentary pause. The word harsh is actually a harsh word, which adds more emphasis to the phrase.This technique is very effective because it immerses the reader in the journey of the protagonist as it actually halts their flow when the protagonists train comes to a halt. Larkin uses a grapple of alliteration in Here, an example of this occurs in the first stanza when alliteration occurs four times in the position of two lines Swerving to solitude of skies and scarecrows, haystacks, hares and pheasants. There is a repetition of the word swerving which reiterates the lack of control of the protagonist.It also shows the part of the journey that is taking him through the countryside and he is swerving east away from the towns and towards the countryside. The repetition of the /s/ hissing sound gives a sense of speed and also replicates the sound of the train or car moving. The /s/ sound runs throughout two lines which links them together and helps demonstrate the onward movement of the protagonist and the passage of time. The actual shape of the letter /s/ is satiny and therefore mimics the journey flowing onward.In the last line of the first stanza Larkin describes the entrance to a town by saying the glitter gull-marked mud gathers to the surprise of a large town. Gull-marked mud can be used as a similitude to harsh-named halt a few lines previously and demonstrates the difference amid town and country. The comparison between harsh-named halt and gull-marked mud can also be drawn through the hyphen between the first two words (which could be used to show the onward motion of the journey) and the alliteration used of the /h/ and /m/ sounds.