Love Songs in Age/First Love

Carol Ann Duffy once stated that she had ‘nothing in common’ with Philip Larkin. And yet, it could be said that loss and defeat haunt the verse of both these poets.

• The presentation of failed relationships abounds in Duffy’s 1993 collection ‘Mean Time’, with the poem ‘First Love’ referring to her youthful relationship with Adrian Henri as ‘a star long dead’.

• (Disgrace)

• Similarly Larkin’s collection, full of what Liz Croft refers to as ‘sad little poems’, focuses on relationships that have failed rather on those that have brought satisfaction.

• These include poems that focus on specific relationships such a ‘Talking in Bed’ which observes the growing distance between him and his lover Monica Jones.

• Larkin’s 1964 collection The Whitsun Weddings also includes the bitter melancholic poem Love Songs in Age which focuses on the idea that all previous relationships have failed ‘to solve and satisfy’, before ending with the bleak assertion that they never will ‘now’.  

What is the difference between Love Songs in Age and First Love?

Although First Love is about a failed relationship the tone is bitter sweet rather than despairing and cherises it.

Love songs in age does not.

How are First Love and Love songs in Age similar?

Like First Love, the recollection of past loves in Love Songs in Age, and all of their associated failures, occurs without warning.

What does First Love begin with?

It begins with a presentation of sensual intensity.

• The speaker wakes from ‘a dream of first love’ which causes her to feel her past lover’s name ‘as close to my lips as lipstick’

• The sensual simile suggests that the dream was erotic – an idea that is developed through the image of Duffy saying her lover’s name ‘into the pillow’ and then walking to the window ‘naked’

• The effect of sibilance implies how this memory is suffering not uncomfortable despite its failure.,

What does this dream affect the speaker?

It seems that even after a ‘silence of years’ a past relationship has the ‘power’ to affect the speaker both physically and emotionally.

• She stares out at a garden which is ‘shaking with light’ - a visceral reflection of the intensity of the memories. 

• The first stanza represents the morning.

How is it clear that the relationship is over?

It is clear that the relationship is long over, not just because there has been a ‘silence of years’ but because this was a ‘child’s love’ – and yet it is no less treasured.

What does the second stanza show?

In the second stanza, her desire to remember her former lover is made clear through the use of the verb ‘clench’ as she attempts to close her eyes 'till the pictures return’ - shows determination

The metaphor of an ‘old fim played at a slow speed’ indicates a desire to relish memories that from the past

• while there is a sense of frustration with the assertion that that the memory is ‘unfocused’ at first and then becomes ‘almost clear’

Sense of despiration as she will ‘glimpse it’ in many avenues ‘in mirrors’, ‘my lover’s eyes’

What is the rhyme scheme of Frist Love?

Lack of regular rhyme: Any rhymes that do occur are mostly incidental or internal rather than forming a structured scheme.

Enjambment: Lines frequently run into one another, reflecting the speaker’s emotional overflow and the non-linear nature of memory.

Irregular stanza structure: The poem consists of three stanzas of varying length, contributing to a more conversational and introspective tone.

What is the structure?

Using the structure of a single day tracked through three discrete tercets

• Morning

• Afternoon

• Night

‘Star, long dead’

‘Love-letter…stammers itself in my heart’

Duffy uses the metaphor of a ‘star long dead’ to assert that this is a relationship which ended, which ultimately failed to last, and yet it is still ‘here’.

• The use of a caesura at this point, followed by another after the noun ‘tear’,(still painful)

• serves to emphasise the intensity of the memory which recalls ‘such faithfulness’

Clearly, just like the light from a long dead star, the light of the relationship is still felt as a ‘love letter’ which ‘stammers itself’ into her heart.

‘Unseen flowers suddenly pierce and sweeten the air’

The poem ends with flowers that both ‘pierce’ and ‘sweeten’ the air – two juxtaposing verbs which reflect the bitter sweetness of this lingering relationship.

When was Love Songs in Age wrriten?

Written in 1957: possibly inspired by Larkins mother

• As he written it after visitng her at christmas, 1956 where she does find old sheet music which bring back memories of youth and first love.

• 1957 Eva aged 71, widowed for a decade.

What does the speaker find?

Like First Love, the recollection of past loves in Love Songs in Age, and all of their associated failures, occurs without warning.

The widow finds the ‘love songs’ while ‘looking for something else’. Like in First Love, these memories have been silent for many years.

How does the first stanza show the impact of these songs?

Their significance for the widow initially appears slight, as she only ‘kept [them]’ because they ‘took up such little space’.

Yet these small little artifacts have a powerful impact as just the ‘covers pleased her’ as just the sight of them sparks enjoyment and memories.

With the anaphora of ‘one’ describing how one is ‘bleached’, ‘marked’, ‘mended’ these verbs show how well-loved and used they were.

What is the structure of Love Songs in Age?

The regular rhyme and controlled stanza structure reflect Larkin’s style — a kind of formal constraint that balances the emotional and nostalgic content.

The contrast between formality and feeling mirrors the poem's themes: the disillusionment between youthful romantic ideals and the realities of aging and experience.

‘Relearning how each frank submissive chord Had ushered in’

• Reflective tone here. Also, the prefix (Re…) implies a sense of having changed or forgotten

The enjambment connecting the two stanzas highlights the excitement and fluidity of memory, indicating the strong impact it has on her, as she can hear it from the cover.

• The verb "ushered" suggests that all these memories returned rapidly and without hesitation. - lack of control

‘Unfailing sense of being young spread out like a spring-woken tree’

‘hidden freshness,sung’

‘the certainty of time laid up in store’

Love was sudden, abrupt, all-consuming, fresh, exciting, foolish, deluded, invincible; all of this is depicted through this simile.

• It suggests an invigorating and fresh life that was just beginning.

However, the word ‘unfailing’ implied how youth felt forever lasting, yet by modifying falling, it may express an undercurrent of what is to come.

Continuing the imagery of spring and new hope, this stanza really shows how it is a poem about love.

• Yet she does not have ‘time laid up in store’

• Links to the youthful promises made in youth that all people make, but are ultimately unfulfilled by life

‘The glare of that much-mentioned brilliance’

Larkin is known to have valued ‘truth’ in his poems, and this focus on the failure of relationships is perhaps also a criticism of false promises.

• The idea that love’s promises are a ‘much mentioned brilliance’ is perhaps a reference to the ubiquitous nature of love songs within popular music, which may cause joy in youth encouraging the young to relish all of the ‘time laid up in store’ but ultimately they are only a ‘glare’ a lie that blinds you to the reality of relationships which fail to fulfil.

‘still promising, to solve, and satisfy, And set unchangeably in order’

Larkin uses an everyday item, a booklet of sheet music, to illuminate the false promises of popular music which endow relationships with the power to ‘solve, satisfy’ and set everything ‘unchangeably in order’. The use of sibilance here may initially appear soothing, but it has a narcotising quality that suggests that we are lulled into believing in an image of ‘bright incipience’ that will always be out of reach, always ‘sailing above’.

• The use of caesura in the final stanza emphasises pain, regret and yet also an acceptance of a truth that has appeared as the woman has aged.

• We see this towards the end of the poem in the line ‘to pile them back, to cry/ Was hard,’ where the speaker’s voice become stilted before the final recognition that time has only brought the melancholy realisation that love ‘had not done so then and could not now

‘to pile them back, to cry/ Was hard,’

‘lamely admitting’

‘had not done so then and could not now’.

We see this towards the end of the poem in the line ‘to pile them back, to cry/ Was hard,’ where the speaker’s voice become stilted before the final recognition that time has only brought the melancholy realisation that love ‘had not done so then and could not now’.

• The juxtaposition of the time adverbials ‘then’ and the final ‘now’ positions Larkin as a fellow traveller towards this realisation

It is a typical Larkin structure, beginning by initially setting himself at a distance (in this instance with an unnamed ‘she’) before breaking away to empathy in the final line

The fact that this poem ends with an acceptance, with a woman who ‘lamely admits’ that time has not delivered on the expectations of youth is in keeping with their ideals.

What did Simon Armitage state about Larkin?

Of course, Larkin himself struggled to commit. In the words of

• Simon Armitage, he managed to keep two women ‘at arm’s length for over twenty years’.

• Moreover, his mother’s relationship with Larkin’s dominating father Sydney was an unhappy one so perhaps it is unsurprising that his presentation of relationships is more pessimistic than Duffy’s.   

What did Liz Croft state about Duffy?

‘Duffy’s outlook is generally life-enhancing’

Her poetry presents an ‘optimistic view of the redeeming power of love’

What did Bryan Appleyard state about L?

What did Liz Croft state about L?

‘Larkin is a hopeless and inflexible pessimist’ - BA

Larkin implies that ‘love is impotent’