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Philip Larkin's poems about death provide readers with a profound contemplation of mortality. Through his masterful use of language and imagery, Larkin explores the human condition with striking clarity and honesty.
Jun 10, 2015 · Trying to create a ‘top ten’ definitive list of Philip Larkin’s best poems is impossible, not least because each Larkin fan will come up with a slightly different list. However, we’ve tried our best to bring together some of Larkin’s most classic poems here.
Aubade. By Philip Larkin. I work all day, and get half-drunk at night. Waking at four to soundless dark, I stare. In time the curtain-edges will grow light. Till then I see what’s really always there: Unresting death, a whole day nearer now, Making all thought impossible but how. And where and when I shall myself die.
- Summary of Aubade
- Themes in Aubade
- Structure and Form
- Literary Devices
- Aubade Analysis
- Similar Poems
Throughout this poem, Larkin’s speakertakes the reader into his darkest thoughts, those he has early in the morning before the sun comes up. There, he thinks about his future and the fact that death is always right there at the edge of his life. There is nothing in the world that can soothe the fear of death, he says. Religion tried, but it’s usele...
The clearest theme at work in ‘Aubade’ is death/mortality. Throughout this poem, Larkin’s speaker focuses on the inevitability of death and what exactly it is that he fears about it. Unlike some, he says, he is not worried about leaving things undone. The regrets that he might have in the future don’t bother him. What he thinks about most is the bl...
‘Aubade’ by Philip Larkin is a five-stanza poem that is separated into sets of ten lines. The lines follow a steady rhyme scheme of ABABCCDEED, changing sounds from stanza to stanza. The form is completed with the fairly consistent use of iambic pentameter. This means that most of the lines are made up of five sets of two beats. The first of these ...
Larkin makes use of several literary devices in ‘Aubade’. These include but are not limited to examples of enjambment, caesura, imagery, and similes.The first of these, enjambment, is a common literary device that is seen in the transition from one line to the next. For example, that which exists between lines six and seven of the first stanza and ...
Stanza One
In the first stanza of ‘Aubade,’ the speaker begins by describing waking up “at four to soundless dark”. This is not an unusual start to an aubade but what comes next is. Larkin’s speaker is not waking up with a lover with whom he’s just spent the night, he is instead waking up to thoughts of death. He knows that eventually, the darkness outside will give way to light but for now, he gets to look around him and see the world for what it really is— “Unresting death”. He’s a “whole day nearer”...
Stanza Two
In the second stanza of ‘Aubade’, the speaker focuses on what it is about death that he’s so worried about. It’s the “total emptiness for ever” that haunts him, not the things left undone. He’s not so worried about the “love not given” or the time “unused”. He is thinking about what it is like to exist as nothing. The “sure extinction” that all living creatures are travelling to. Once there, we “shall be lost” in that blackness “always”. It’s hard to comprehend as human beings what it will be...
Stanza Three
Moving on, the speaker says that the fear of death is special. It is a different way of being afraid than anything human beings experience in any other part of their life. There are no “tricks” that can “dispel” it. Religion used to do it for some, but nowadays, ancient rituals “Created to pretend we never die” do nothing. He takes the reader through other arguments about death, ones that say that human beings should not fear something they can’t feel. He doesn’t believe that any argument or...
Readers who enjoyed Aubade’ should also take a look at some of Larkin’s other popular poems. These include ‘The Whitsun Weddings,’ ‘Wild Oats,’ and ‘Age’. Death is one of the most common themes in the world of poetry, as well as in the broader literary world. This poem does a beautiful job of putting down humankind’s most depressing thoughts into m...
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Dec 6, 2014 · Philip Larkin‘s poem “Aubade” is one of the most profound poems on death that I’ve ever read, conveying the existential terror of death as well as our impotence in its face. I’ll let the poem speak for itself.
An Arundel Tomb. By Philip Larkin. Side by side , their faces blurred, The earl and countess lie in stone, Their proper habits vaguely shown. As jointed armour, stiffened pleat, And that faint hint of the absurd—. The little dogs under their feet. Such plainness of the pre-baroque.
Mar 7, 2017 · Instead, Philip Larkin’s ‘Aubade’ is a poem about death, and specifically the poet’s own growing sense of his mortality. You can read ‘Aubade’ here; in this post we offer some notes towards an analysis of this, the last great poem Larkin ever wrote.
