'Dockery and Son'.

'Dockery and Son' - first impressions and reactions.

The first thing that I assumed and noticed when I first read 'Dockery and Son' is that Larkin is on another train journey and I found it interesting how Larkin seems to use the train journeys in some of his poems to possibly imply that life is a journey that changes constantly and moves in different directions and speeds and in a way, that is what life is like and Larkin uses platonic and philosophical concepts and ideas to show this.

Towards the end of the poem, I feel sympathy towards the persona that Larkin is writing in as he has come to realise that he was a middle-aged man where life had just gone past him - he doesn't have children of his own, unlike Dockery and he sees loneliness as a positive thing as he sees having a family as a burden as he compares his himself to Dockery's life choice of having a son so early. In stanza three, the persona falls asleeps but to me it seems as if he had been asleep for most of his life and he is shocked about Dockery having a son and shocked about the realisation of how much of life had gone past without him even having his own family.

First impressions and reactions to 'Here' by Larkin.

"Swerving east, from rich industrial shadows

And traffic all night north; swerving through fields"

These first two lines of the poem don't seem to grab my attention or trigger any thoughts or feelings as I just get the impression that 'Here' is going to be just like the beginning of 'The Whitsun Weddings'. The only thing that is portrayed is that it is yet another train journey and this time the movement is more violent and harsh. The fact that it is another journey, gives me the impression that travelling and seeing different surroundings was what was ordinary for Larkin and he enjoyed putting himself in a position where he was the observer of the things outside. For example, "the widening river's slow presence, the piled gold clouds, the shining gull-marked mud".

I think that 'Here' is a poem than is emphatic of the aspiration, hope, light and potential that Larkin is trying to portray through the man-made buildings and sights as well as potraying things in it's natural forms as he describes the country side. However, I still think of Larkin as a pessimistic person but a also an admiring poet that seems to see the good in everything bad such as death and loneliness.

Philip Larkin's 'The Whitsun Weddings' - first impression and reaction. Having briefly heard of Philip Larkin before, I wasn't sure what to expect from his poetry. From the outset of the poem, I know that Larkin is describing a journey that is he going on as his "three-quarters-empty train pull out" and as the train begins to move, the mood of the poem becomes relaxed and this notion of time and worries seem to disappear as "all sense of being in a hurry" is gone - this particular line in the stanza made me feel relaxed as I read through and it gave me the impression that Larkin was too and he wanted to make the reader feel the same way. 

I also find it interesting and significant how Larkin calls this poem the 'Whitsun Weddings' as the word 'Whitsun' is the name for a christian festival for pentecost, the seventh Sunday Easter. So, because christianity believes that this was when Jesus was brought back to life, it could symbolize a new beginning and life for new married couple.

I then get a sense of what the atmosphere is like and it gives me the impression that the journey is becoming monotonous and tiring as Larkin describes the "slow stopping curve" and the "tall heat that slept". I also found it fascinating how Larkin can make the reader feel as if they are or have experienced the same journey as the persona that he is writing in. However, one thing that I dislike about Larkin's poetry in general is how pessimistic he is about living life and the things in life as well as  the negative connotations that he uses to emphasize this, although, these negative connotations are creative, clever and effective on the reader's mood. For example, Larkin  describes the girls at the wedding being dressed in "paradies of fashion...posed irresolutely" and  the use of an oxymoron as he describes the women sharing a "secret like a happy funeral".