Compare the Ways in Which Larkin and Abse Write About Settings in Their Poems.
Compare the ways in which Larkin and Abse write about settings in their poems. In your response you must include detailed critical discussion of at least two of Larkin’s poems.
In ‘Mr Bleaney’ Larkin explores the setting of an old house, still ever present with the spirit and legacy of its last occupant. Setting is presented as impressionable on its inhabitant, restricting and institutionalising their lives. Similarly, Abse’s poem ‘Leaving Cardiff’ also displays themes regarding setting giving you an identity, which is defined by one place, leaving the persona institutionalised. Regarding setting, another of Larkin’s poems ‘The Whitsun Weddings’ also supports the theme of settings being very impressionable. However, like ‘Leaving Cardiff’, this particular poem hints at settings also contributing to a disappointing, anticlimactic and overrated journey.
In ‘Mr Bleaney’ Larkin presents setting as an extremely reclusive place which has an everlasting and overpowering effect on the persona, making him very agoraphobic. The repetitive and constant ‘ABAB’ rhyme scheme throughout this poem hints at the continual and dull life the persona leads, being forced to live a constant, boring life sculpted by Mr Bleaney’s previous existence. The lexis ‘stayed’ also reiterates the lack of ambition the persona feels towards being any different to Mr Bleaney. The previous occupant Mr Bleaney relied on his house ‘the whole time’, and the persona is starting to behave similarly. The end of the poem ‘I don’t know.’, ending with a caesura displaying irony, is a powerful ending which is the personas way of justifying superiority or difference, and the irony that he is actually like Mr Bleaney, a reclusive and restrictive man. The metaphorical use of pathetic fallacy ‘frigid wind’ is hinting at the outside world trying to torpon the previous occupant to come outside more frequently, but due to his contentment with confinement, he chose never to. ‘That how we live measures our own
In ‘Mr Bleaney’ Larkin explores the setting of an old house, still ever present with the spirit and legacy of its last occupant. Setting is presented as impressionable on its inhabitant, restricting and institutionalising their lives. Similarly, Abse’s poem ‘Leaving Cardiff’ also displays themes regarding setting giving you an identity, which is defined by one place, leaving the persona institutionalised. Regarding setting, another of Larkin’s poems ‘The Whitsun Weddings’ also supports the theme of settings being very impressionable. However, like ‘Leaving Cardiff’, this particular poem hints at settings also contributing to a disappointing, anticlimactic and overrated journey.
In ‘Mr Bleaney’ Larkin presents setting as an extremely reclusive place which has an everlasting and overpowering effect on the persona, making him very agoraphobic. The repetitive and constant ‘ABAB’ rhyme scheme throughout this poem hints at the continual and dull life the persona leads, being forced to live a constant, boring life sculpted by Mr Bleaney’s previous existence. The lexis ‘stayed’ also reiterates the lack of ambition the persona feels towards being any different to Mr Bleaney. The previous occupant Mr Bleaney relied on his house ‘the whole time’, and the persona is starting to behave similarly. The end of the poem ‘I don’t know.’, ending with a caesura displaying irony, is a powerful ending which is the personas way of justifying superiority or difference, and the irony that he is actually like Mr Bleaney, a reclusive and restrictive man. The metaphorical use of pathetic fallacy ‘frigid wind’ is hinting at the outside world trying to torpon the previous occupant to come outside more frequently, but due to his contentment with confinement, he chose never to. ‘That how we live measures our own