Ambulances

What is the rhyme scheme of this poem?

ABCBCA, a trademark Larkin complex rhyme scheme.

How are the stanzas distributed and what could this suggest?

The poem is split into 5 sestets, this could perhaps connote the idea of 5 stages of grief that happen after a tragedy.

What is the overarching theme of the poem?

The idea that death and tragedy is an inevitability for us all.

“All streets in time are visited” - how does this closing line to stanza 1 link back to the poem’s overarching theme?

In a literal sense, it means that eventually every street in the city will have an Ambulance pass through it at least once. Metaphorically, it echoes the belief that death is inevitable. This idea of memento mori is a staple of Larkin’s works.

“Past smells of different dinners” - How does this line from stanza 2 link to the poem’s central theme?

It implies the idea of your life flashing before your eyes in a more olfactory context. It could also imply that the person the Ambulance is picking up has thrown up, a more grisly interpretation that lines up with Larkin’s signature cynicism.

“Poor soul,/They whisper at their own distress” - How does the closing line of stanza 3 link back to the poem’s central theme?

Here, Larkin criticises how we take our health for granted, not knowing that it could next be us in that Ambulance.