'Whitsun Weddings' - Philip Larkin analysis

[@stevendavies417]

It always makes me wonder when Larkin is accused of lacking ambition as a poet; I wonder if these critics have ever had a go at poetry themselves. Metrically these stanzas are very complex stuff indeed and difficult to do without losing control of the meter, so only a virtuoso such as Larkin could make it work. I think he constructed it so that the reader would gradually lose the sense of the initial ABAB rhyme, which effectively becomes ABCABC. The rhymes become more distant and echoey as the stanza progresses, and particularly in the first and last stanza, this has a wonderful effect. I love the line, 'where sky and Lincolnshire and water meet'. One truly feels one has left the town behind. But the way he blends together these two rhyme schemes is really remarkable, and reinforces this feeling of separation and sympathy that he was experiencing.

[@Simpaulme]

Larkin said, when he appeared on BBC Desert Island Discs, that if he had to choose, this is the one poem of his he would single out for preservation

[@santimezzano393]

Very good analysis, helped me a lot! Thanks

[@MileyAgrawal]

thanks a lot mister Ian of four years ago :)

[@Idreamtthatiwasacat]

Thanks a lot miss miley of four years ago :)

[@andrew4ths]

😂😂😂😂😂 I can see the s*x number in the background 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣