Sleeping (Duffy) and A Study of Reading Habits (Larkin)

What is the main theme that connects both poems and how does each poet tackle it?

Sex (specifically sex where consent is dubious)

Sleeping: the narrator of this poem is someone who's partner craves sex but they are not ready for it. Even still, they have sex with them as to not lose the romantic connection they have with them (“I am dreaming you anyway)

A study of reading habits: here, the narrator becomes increasingly cynical thanks to his failing love live. However, he reminisces on a time where he made love to lots of women who he “clubbed with sex”.

In short, both poems tackle dubious consent from the perspective of both victim and perpetrator respectively

Both poems contain ideas of fantasy and things not being fully real- how is this conveyed in each poem and what effect does it have?

Sleeping: as the title says, Duffy invokes images of sleeping and dreams very frequently in this poem, perhaps to reflect the disconnect between what is happening to our narrator and how she really feels as her mind refuses to fully process it and so the sex feels dream like to her as it lacks any feeling of reality as she cannot accept it until the end of the poem when she admits “this is for real”.

A study of reading habits: Larkin alludes to reading and literature here to show how the fantastical ideas of life planted in the narrator’s head by the books he reads leads to him romanticising his own horrid actions and later being let down and succumbing to full blown cynicism in his old age.

How does the structure of each poem reflect their overall themes?

Sleeping: the poem lacks any sort of rhyme scheme and is full of enjambment to create a disorientated, chaotic tone. Furthermore, the tercets that the poem is split into creates a snapshot effect like the narrator is slipping in and out of consciousness as the events of the poem play out.

A study of reading habits: the poem is split into three octaves with a ABCBAC rhyme scheme. This splits the poem into a three act structure, similar to the books the narrator reads, to convey the idea that the poem acts like a biography for our narrator (who is uncannily similar to Larkin)

Ignore this I needed 4 terms to create a set

:3