The Less Deceived - form and structure

Lines on a Young Lady’s Photograph Album:

1)        Nine stanzas separated into quintains

2)        ABBBAB rhyme scheme

3)        Almost every line contains five sets of ten beats.

4) Each stanza could be a new photo.

Wedding-Wind:

1)        Stanza 1 contains lots of present participles + is present tense -> emphasises excitement and activity.

2)        Only poem in the collection from a woman’s point of view

3)        Instances of rhyming couplets at end of stanza 1 suggest fulfilment and satisfaction

Free verse, dramatic monologue.

Places, Loved Ones:

1)        Regular rhyme scheme of ABABCDCD however with some half rhyme.

2)        Negatives imply his disappointment and loss

3)        Conversational tone

3 octaves

Coming:

1)        Unified by similar lengthed lines.

2)        No rhyme scheme.

Volta of ‘it will be spring soon’

Reasons for attendance:

1)        Lots of half rhyme suggest feelings of loniless.

2)        Four stanzas separated into irregular lined quintains

Loosely ABACB for the first three stanzas and then ABABB

Dry-Point:

1)        4 quatrains

2)        Loose iambic pentameter

Irregular line lengths

Next, Please:

1)        1^st three lines are iambic tetrameter

2)        Split into 6 quatrains

AABB rhyme scheme suggests the inevitability of death

Going:

1)        3 tercets -> unlike Larkin

2)        And one single line -> characteristic of Larkin.

3)        Each tercet is made up of one complete phrase, emphasising his sense of failure?

No rhyme scheme

Wants:

1)        2 quintains

2)        1^st and last lines are identical which book ends the poem.

Becomes more intense, first stanza speaks about wishes -> desires.

Maiden Name:

1)        Three stanzas of seven lines

2)        ABBACCA rhyme scheme

Iambic pentameter

Born yesterday:

1)        Title has an idiomatic meaning used ironically

2)        Ends with a rhyming couplet -> suggesting he wants her to be happy.

Does to a small extent follow Larkins triparental structure.

Whatever Happened?:

1)        Sonnet -> 4 tercets + rhyming couplets

2)        ABA BCB CDC DED FF

No set meter

No Road:

1)        Larkins excessive use of pronouns (you + me) ephasise their separation.

2)        Rhyming couplets give a sense of finality.

3 six lined stanzas.

Wires:

1)        Mirrored structure ABCD DCBA -> sense of limitation and capture.

2 quatrains

Church going:

1)        Seven stanzas, sets of nine lines -> unusual for Larkin given its length

2)        Halting rhyme scheme with some full and half end rhymes -> predictability and change

Present tense -> the moment is changing.

Age:

1)        Free verse + use of enjambement

2)        Two stanza poem one set of seven lines and another of five.

Lines one and five rhyme -> enhances the unity.

Myxomatosis:

1)        One stanza of nine lines

2)        Some end rhyme occurs

2 perspectives, the rabbit in the jaws of fear and the poet to the animal.

Toads:

1)        Alternates between trochaic tetrameter and trochaic trimetre.

2)        Isolated moments of perfect and imperfect rhyme.

Toad is a metaphor for work which drains him of life.

Poetry of departures:

1)        Four octaves

No specific rhyme scheme, some instances of slanted rhyme

Triple time:

1)        3 stanzas of five lines

Consistent ABCAC rhyme scheme

Spring:

1)        First 8 lines follows the pattern of a Shakespearean sonnet.

2)        Stress of the beats alternates between iambic and trochaic.

Meter reverts to the pentameter in the last tercet.

Deceptions:

1)        Same length lines gives the poem unity

2)        Epigraph details rape

Both stanzas follow rhyme schemes.

I remember I remember:

1)        Use of negative suggests his preconceived idealised vison of childhood.

2)        No consistent rhyme scheme but uses alliteration to make connections.

Seven stanzas divided into quintains.

Absences:

1)        Interlocking tercets

2)        Terza-rima

Absences shown as the stanzas decrease in length.

Latest Face:

1)        Written in iambic tetrameter

Concludes on a rhyming couplet representing the union of a couple as one.

If, My Darling:

1)        Eight stanzas separated into tercets

Moments of end rhyme as well as assonance and consonance to add unity.

Skin:

1)        Short three stanza poem of sestets.

2)        Regular in length

No rhyme scheme. 

Arrivals, Departures:

1)        Present tense: fleeting nature of opportunity.

2)        Typical tripartant structure

ABBA rhyme speaker in first stanza which traps the poem and reduces movement and energy.

At Grass:

1)        Constant rhyme scheme of ABCABC, suggests the regularity of life.

Iambic tetrameter.