Mr Bleaney
Write a critical appreciation of An Arundel Tomb paying close attention to language, form and imagery.
The poem "An Arundel Tomb" by Philip Larkin was written in 1955 and was included in his 1964 anthology ‘The Whitsun Weddings’. It tells the story of a man (arguably Larkin himself) who rents a room and discovers by looking at the apartment the monotonous life of the person who used to live there, Mr Bleaney. As the poem progresses, the man starts identifying himself to Bleaney and it is here where Larkin presents a central theme of the poem being interchange ability of lives and what constitutes individuality.
Larkin’s use of punctuation is particularly effective throughout the poem this can be seen through his use of the comma in the middle of the first line of the first stanza, ‘side by side, their faces blurred’. Here Larkin introduces the two main themes of the poem: romantic love, through the physical relationship of the couple, as suggested by ‘Side by side’; and loss of identity, as suggested by ‘their faces blurred’. However, ‘Side by side’ has wider connotations than the purely physical; it also highlights the supportive, emotional closeness of the Earl and Countess. The theme of loss of identity introduced in the first stanza and emphasized by ‘blurred’, ‘vaguely’, ‘faint’ and ‘hint’ dominates, in subtly different ways, throughout the poem, and it is this that will gradually reveal the ultimate ‘meaning’ of the poem. Larkin further uses punctuation to emphasise thematic relevance in the third stanza when he repeats the verb lie, in ‘They would not think to lie so long.’ However, notice Larkin’s use of the full stop. Once again the lie the poet is referring to is the couple’s faith in the promise of immortality. The religious beliefs of the earl and countess had convinced them that after death they would be together eternally, their souls everlasting. Despite this, rather than enjoying a resurrection to eternal life, all that remains of them are their
The poem "An Arundel Tomb" by Philip Larkin was written in 1955 and was included in his 1964 anthology ‘The Whitsun Weddings’. It tells the story of a man (arguably Larkin himself) who rents a room and discovers by looking at the apartment the monotonous life of the person who used to live there, Mr Bleaney. As the poem progresses, the man starts identifying himself to Bleaney and it is here where Larkin presents a central theme of the poem being interchange ability of lives and what constitutes individuality.
Larkin’s use of punctuation is particularly effective throughout the poem this can be seen through his use of the comma in the middle of the first line of the first stanza, ‘side by side, their faces blurred’. Here Larkin introduces the two main themes of the poem: romantic love, through the physical relationship of the couple, as suggested by ‘Side by side’; and loss of identity, as suggested by ‘their faces blurred’. However, ‘Side by side’ has wider connotations than the purely physical; it also highlights the supportive, emotional closeness of the Earl and Countess. The theme of loss of identity introduced in the first stanza and emphasized by ‘blurred’, ‘vaguely’, ‘faint’ and ‘hint’ dominates, in subtly different ways, throughout the poem, and it is this that will gradually reveal the ultimate ‘meaning’ of the poem. Larkin further uses punctuation to emphasise thematic relevance in the third stanza when he repeats the verb lie, in ‘They would not think to lie so long.’ However, notice Larkin’s use of the full stop. Once again the lie the poet is referring to is the couple’s faith in the promise of immortality. The religious beliefs of the earl and countess had convinced them that after death they would be together eternally, their souls everlasting. Despite this, rather than enjoying a resurrection to eternal life, all that remains of them are their