It's a journey poem, homecoming.
A magnetic pull east.
stanza one: 'And the widening river's slow presence' - personification acts like a guide.
'The piled gold clouds, the shining gull-marked mud' - both positive and negative has a contrary effect.
Stanza two: the city. 'domes and statues, spires and cranes cluster' - more partial to culture
'barge-crowded water' - forceful
'and residents from raw estates' - working class, council estates - he's looking down on them.
'cheap suits, red kitchen-ware, sharp shoes, iced lollies' - very materialistic
stanza three: the back streets - 'cut-price crowd, urban yet simple.' 'simple' could be describing the layout, or the people in the town, calling them simple or stupid.
'where only salesmen and relations come' - no one would willingly go there.
these people are cheap and cheerful.
stanza four: the coast - the outskirts - 'loneliness' Larkin is saying that loneliness is good because you are not occupied with materialism and you are able to breathe, and become pure. 'waters quicken' - forces of nature, what you need to survive. 'out of reach' where other humans can't go.
lots of imagery, positive and negative - descriptive and then philosophical.
No comments:
Post a Comment