Philip Larkin 'Ambulances'.

Philip Larkin - 'Ambulances' first impression and brief analysis.

First impression.

After reading 'Ambulances by Larkin, I was truly shocked at how much of a realist Larkin really is. Although Larkin uses abstract nouns to portray the meanings of things, the meanings are actually simple: we all become exposed to death as soon we are brought into the world and death is something that is inevitable no matter how rich or poor you are or were in society.

Brief analysis.

As well as picking out certain words and phrases from the poem, I thought I would also present some pictures that I think represent the words and phrases, just so you get a clear idea of what Larkin is saying visually looks like.

So, at the very beginning of the poem we all already see Larkin getting into what he does best, which is to think up of some intelligent way to depict certain images in the reader's mind:

"Closed like confessionals, they thread

Loud noons of cities".

]Here, Larkin emphasizes the cacophony within the city as the ambulance urges to its emergency. Not only is it a simile for the ambulance doors being firmly shut, but the fact that he describes the ambulance doors as being like "confessionals" shows that the person suffering in the ambulance is now being exposed to death and the person inside has now realized what death is really about.

"All streets in time are visited".

Now this line is the poem has a double meaning. The first meaning that I noted is the ambulances driving through all of the streets which is very simple. The second meaning is the fact that the ambulance will visit all of the streets because everyone must die eventually and so the ambulance can almost be seen as a motif for the early signs of someone's death, but everyone will experience death at their own pace and so the noun of "time" is key here as well. I guess you could also say that this is almost like a small paradox because being "visited" by something suggests that something good is coming to you or is going to happen, however the fact that it is an ambulance that will eventually visit everyone is not a good thing because it usually means the very first and early signs of death and we all just dread the day that one day where someone we know is taken away from us by an ambulance.

"Then children strewn on steps or road,

Or women coming from the shops

Past smell of different dinners".

In this particular section of the poem, Larkin isolates the people who are dying from the people who are still living. Larkin uses words such as "road" "shops and "dinners and this demotic, everyday vocabulary to portray the casualness of the human existence and their vulnerability to life.  Being a poet and a master of words, I thought that Larkin would have used abstract nouns to portray such a simple image of the everyday of children and women.The fact that women and children are carrying on with their lives as usual shows could possibly show their ignorance or their naivety in life. The use of the demotic vocabulary interestingly causes the topic of death to fade in the background of life.

"wild white face that overtops

Red stretcher-blankets momently

As it is carried in and stowed".

Larkin de-humanizes the people who have are dead, or who are dying as he no longer describes them as if they were humans and instead he describes them as objects. This quote also portrays a vivid image of someone dying as he describes the he describes it as a "wild white face". Larkin then goes onto using verbs such as "carried in and stowed" whch shows the body being put away into darkness until the funeral. Larkin also uses passive words to emphasize that they are no longer human. Once again Larkin uses demotic, everyday vocabulary maintain that casualness of human existence, but it also shows that death is a casual thing that happens in people's lives.

"the solving emptiness

That lies just under all we do".

Here, Larkin is saying that death under-grinds our actions in every day life and it culminates in death. This presents the reader with an image of someone's grave as people walk by it every day. the "solving emptiness" could may as well be the corpses that are lying underneath the ground we walk on. The fact that Larkin calls death the "solving emptiness" implies that Larkin sees death as the end to all of our problems in life.Death is all around is whether we know it or not and as dark as that sounds, that how Larkin seems to think.

"The fastened doors recede".
This is a metaphor for the final transition from life to death.

"At last begin to loosen".

Here Larkin is talking about the ties of life loosening and so the aspects of life begin to fall apart when someone dies, but instead of completely falling apart, these aspects only begin to unravel.

If anyone has any suggestions that they could make about any of the quotes I've picked out, then it would be great. It would also be interesting to see how different/similar your perceptions of the poem might be to compared to mine.

Lara.