Larkin and Duffy Context

growing up (larkin)

early experience growing up of grim suburban life

religious faith (larkin)

lack of religious faith and the questions this raises about mortality

job (larkin)

life in hull working as a librarian

Influence of hardy (larkin)

the influence of hardy, perhaps seen in the pessimism, in the use of external world to describe internal, the use of syntax with traditional forms

yeats

early reading of yeats, themes of loss, time passing and the sense of premature ageing

experience writing novels(larkin)

experience writing novels perhaps leading to quite dramatic, narrative poems

love life (larkin)

was described as a grumpy old bachelor who believed tire love was depriving and he was seen as passionless by those he dated

never married (larkin)

had multiple women on the go and never committed to marriage, perhaps due to his fathers lack of respect of women

What did she study (duffy)

study of philosophy, the relationship between language and things, the limits of language, meaning of time

early love life (duffy)

had an affair with a married man at the age of 15, had multiple male lovers before becoming a lesbian in her later life

position as laureate (duffy)

she was the first women, scot and first openly LGBT person to hold the position of britain's poet laureate due to her poetry inspired by current affairs

catholic influence in poetry (duffy)

awareness of the effects of words, the right of wrong words, perhaps influenced by catholic upbringing. catholic upbringing in awareness of sin, guilty and moral questions

The Beat influence

experience in the performance poetry scene of the Seventies in Liverpool and writing plays, leading to the use of dramatic monologues, colloquial language and references to popular culture

contrast in style between the two poets

far more lyrical in his crafting of relationship poems, perhaps due to his disconnection with them as they bear no meaning whereas duffy's previous relationship and scorn filled life - she adopted a more abrupt and raw deception of romance

shared inspiration

both inspired by t.s elliot

similarities in subject matter

both heavily feature colloquial terms and talk about domestic issues

Larkin as an observer

Work is characterised by detailed observations of everyday life and relationships.

Larkin birthplace

Coventry

Additional writings

Also wrote novels and jazz criticisms

neglecting the poet laureate

Offered position of poet Laureate in December 1984 but declined, unwilling to accept the high public profile.

Duffy birth

Glasgow 1955

family (Duffy)

4 younger brothers

schooling (Duffy)

Attended Roman Catholic primary school and Stafford Girls' High.

Uni education

Attended University of Liverpool and obtained Philosophy degree in 1977.

Became a lecturer in poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University in 1996.

Duffy

Duffy current life

lives with writer Jackie Kay and has a daughter, Ella (born 1995).

Became creative director at MMU.

Duffy

When was she appointed poet laureate

Appointed Poet Laureate in 2009. (First ever Female Scottish Poet Laureate in the role's 400 year history).

1960s context

Growing up in 1960s- very different treatment of women. Domestic sphere.

Education- corporal punishment allowed, young people's self- esteem less values.

Larkin's context

Grew up between wars- changing class system following WW1.

Zeitgeist of the 1960s

-60s typified by spirit of reactionary rebellion

-rise in youth, pop culture, civil rights protest movements and second wave feminism

-sexual revolution

-The Female Eunuch (1970) became international bestseller

-Argues traditional suburban, consumerist, nuclear families repress woman sexually * devitalises them

Thatcher's Britain

-Thatcher = Prime Minister 1979-90

-Deregulation of the Stock Exchange (1986) = beginning of rise of London as financial centre

-Yuppie generation = young professional people working in cities, characterised by individualism, wealth and materialism

-Privatisation of major state-owned manufacturing and service industries gave 'power back to the people'

-North-South Divide - rising wealth in south, north suffered consequences of deep recession, high unemployment + weakening trade union power

-European Economic Community developed beyond single market, free trade agreement leading to rising Euroscepticism

Literary influences

-William Wordsworth

-Robert Browning

-T.S Eliot

-Phillip Larkin

-Dylan Thomas

-Beat Poets (1940s)

-Liverpool poets (1960s - 1970s)

Mean Time

-GMT is standard time by which clocks are set worldwide and its effect in Britain is reduce the hours of daylight

-Idiom 'in the meantime' = time between events

-adj 'mean' implies destructive effects of time

-'mean' in maths refers to average - suggesting volume/poem has universal appeal or characters face relatable struggles

Valentine

-Red rose/satin heart/kissogram/cute card = conventional cultural symbols of love/valentines day

-Grew up in commercial era

-Asked to create poem on Valentine's Day by a radio host

Havisham

-Dramatic monologue influenced by browning

-Reference to Charles Dickens' 'Great Expectations'

-describes with 'sunken/dark eyes', a 'ghostly waxwork'

Litany

-A long, repetitive, or dull recital

-prayer consisting of a series of invocations and supplications by the religious leader with alternative responses by the congregation

-Religious connotations juxtaposed by secular imagery to reflect social change in latter half of 20th century from religious to consumerist

-Consumerism - following austerity of 1950s, 1960s saw explosion in advertising which manipulated consumers to follow fashion and buy latest material goods

Brothers

-Had four brothers

-UB40 refers to registration card issued to those registering as unemployed

Before you were Mine

-Duffy sees daughter as positive influence on spirit

-Larkin saw parenthood as provoking the 'dilution' of the creative spirit

-Inspired by picture of mother as teenager

-Scottish roots are recollected in references to George Square, Glashow and Portobello

-Marilyn Monroe reflects socio-cultural change of 1950s, preceding a liberalisation of sexual attitudes movement in 1960s + rebellion

John Keats

-Romantic poet

-known for 6 Odes

-intense & mature poetry

-focused on sensuality

-Sexually charged tones of Adultery & Havisham Inspired by Keats

-Duffy conflates Keatsian sensuality with pain (Eros + Thanatos)

-Keats = created heightened sense of emotion

-Later poems by Keats are coloured with his awareness of impeding premature death, provoking Duffy's fascination with the passing of time

Liverpool School

-Adrian Henri is part of them

-1970s poetry movement

-Inspired accessible, informal style of Duffy's work

-emphasis on performance poetry

-we see this in Duffy's phonological techniques

-The Mersey Sound (Liverpool school anthology) focused on popular culture, humour and honest depictions or intimacy

Ludwig Wittgenstein

-Studied by Duffy

-focused on relationship between language and reality

-argues language was insufficient in representing philosophical concepts

-havisham/disgrace explores limits of expression of language in showing full human emotion and ideas

Modernism

-fragmented disassociating poetic structure

-obscure phrasing

-valuing the experimental

-helped develop Duffy's own style

Prayer

-In Christian Doctrine the Feast of the Epiphany is twelfth night, 6th January when Christ was visited by the Three Wise Men and his divinity was revealed to the world

-James Joyce creates secular epiphany (Ulysses)

-Joyce extends the religious meaning to become secular term = sudden dramatic and startling movement which had heightened significance and transcends material reality

-Latin mass ends in 1960s

-Hail Mary is receited to seek forgiveness and redemption

-Shipping Forecast - four times daily BBC radio 4 broadcast of weather reports and forecasts for the seas around the coasts of Britain and Ireland

-Duffy = atheist

Moments of Grace

-Influenced by Wordsworth 'poetry...takes its origins from emotion recollected in tranquility

-'Poetry...a series of intense moments - it's poeer is not in narrative'

A quiet, reflective tone

Larkin

Ironic understatement

Larkin

Sparing use of imagery

Larkin

A detached, sometimes tender observer

Larkin

Plainness, scepticism and cynicism.

Larkin

Highly structured, but flexible verse forms

Larkin

An ordinary, colloquial style

Duffy

Evoking the rhythms of natural speech

Duffy

A far more obviously emotive tone than Larkin's

Duffy

Creation of irony, but less subtle and nuanced than Larkin's

Duffy

Engagement with ordinary, commonplace experiences

Duffy

...but also with the rich fantasy life of herself and others

Duffy

Vivid and quite surreal use of imagery and synaesthesia

Duffy

Use of dramatic monologue to construct characters - often seen as outsiders

Duffy

Discovery of moments of consolation through love, memory and language

Duffy

A tendency to use free verse, although also makes use of traditional forms such as the sonnet

Duffy