Theme

Love and Relationships

The Poem

At last you yielded up the album, which

Once open, sent me distracted. All your ages

Matt and glossy on the thick black pages!

Too much confectionery, too rich:

I choke on such nutritious images.

My swivel eye hungers from pose to pose -

In pigtails, clutching a reluctant cat;

Or furred yourself, a sweet girl-graduate;

Or lifting a heavy-headed rose

Beneath a trellis, or in a trilby-hat

(Faintly disturbing, that, in several ways) -

From every side you strike at my control,

Not least through those these disquieting chaps who loll

At ease about your earlier days:

Not quite your class, I’d say, dear, on the whole

But o, photography! as no art is,

Faithful and disappointing! that records

Dull days as dull, and hold-it smiles as frauds,

And will not censor blemishes

Like washing-lines, and Hall’s-Distemper boards,

But shows a cat as disinclined, and shades

A chin as doubled when it is, what grace

Your candour thus confers upon her face!

How overwhelmingly persuades

That this is a real girl in a real place,

In every sense empirically true!

Or is it just the past? Those flowers, that gate,

These misty park,s and motors, lacerate

Simply by being you; you

Contract my heart by looking out of date.

Yes, true: but in the end. surely, we cry

Not only at exclusion. but because

It leaves us free to cry. We know what was

Won’t call on us to justify

Our grief, however hard we yowl across

The gap from eye to page. So I am left

To mourn (without a chance of consequences)

You, balanced on a bike against a fence;

To wonder if you’d spot the theft

Of this one of you bathing; to condense,

In short, a past that no one now can share,

No matter whose your future; calm and dry,

It holds you like a heaven. and you lie

Unvariably lovely there,

Smaller and clearer as the years go by.

Analysis

At last you yielded up the album, which

• Metaphor - implies that she is uncomfortable revealing her past.

Once open, sent me distracted. All your ages

Matt and glossy on the thick black pages^^!^^

• Exclamatory sentence - suggests that the narrator is excited to see the photos for the first time.

Too much confectionery, too rich:

• Repetition of ‘too’ - suggests that the narrator is overwhelmed.

• Metaphor - shows that the memories are sweet.

I choke on such nutritious images^^.^^

• Violent verb

• Metaphor - he is overwhelmed by the distance.

• Use of end-stop line

My swivel eye hungers from pose to pose -

• Metaphor - the narrator is overwhelmed by the photos, he is unsure to see which picture to look at.

In pigtails, clutching a reluctant cat;

• Use of imagery

Or furred yourself, a sweet girl-graduate;

• Use of alliteration.

• Use of imagery suggests the passing of time. It may be a reference to Winifred Arnott.

Or lifting a heavy-headed rose

Beneath a trellis, or in a trilby-hat

• Use of alliteration.

(Faintly disturbing, that, in several ways) -

From every side you strike at my control,

• Suggests that he is almost bewitched by the photos, and is under her power.

Not least through those these disquieting chaps who loll

• Adjective suggests jealously directed by the people around her, so he copes by insulting them.

At ease about your earlier days:

Not quite your class, I’d say, dear, on the whole^^.^^

• The noun suggests that jealously as he indirectly insults her. He is slightly disappointed by her past, mainly because he wasn’t able to be involved in it.

• Use of end-stop line.

But o, photography^^!^^ as no art is,

• Exclamatory sentence - it suggests that the narrator is disappointed because photos tell the truth.

Faithful and disappointing^^!^^ that records

Dull days as dull, and hold-it smiles as frauds,

And will not censor blemishes

Like washing-lines, and Hall’s-Distemper boards,

• Exclamatory sentence

• Alliteration

• Suggests that photos alter the truth of the memory.

But shows a cat as disinclined, and shades

A chin as doubled when it is, what grace

• Suggests that photos immortalise the truth as the do not censor or hide blemishes.

Your candour thus confers upon her face^^!^^

• Exclamatory sentence.

How overwhelmingly persuades

That this is a real girl in a real place,

• Repetition of real - it reminds the reader of the truth brought about by photography.

In every sense empirically true^^!^^

• Exclamatory sentence.

Or is it just the past^^?^^ Those flowers, that gate,

• Rhetorical question highlights the uncertainty the narrator experiences about the true personality of his lover - if she truly is how she behaves now or if the personality that the photos show is the true her.

These misty parks and motors, lacerate

• Violent verb - he feels pain for not being apart of her life previously.

Simply by being you; you

Contract my heart by looking out of date.

• Use of metaphor - ‘contract’ suggests that a sense of pain by looking at these pictures.

• The narrator dislikes seeing her in a different light as it contrasts how he sees her now.

Yes, true: but in the end. surely, we cry

Not only at exclusion. but because

It leaves us free to cry. We know what was

• Use of collective pronoun - suggests that it is a universal experience. Everyone mourns the passing of time and growing old.

Won’t call on us to justify

Our grief, however hard we yowl across

• Suggests raw emotions - the narrator is able to be vulnerable in front of the photos because they don’t judge. He recognises the power the photos have.

The gap from eye to page. So I am left

• Reminds the reader of the distance between the narrator and their lover’s past. Suggests that the distance cannot be filled.

To mourn (without a chance of consequences)

You, balanced on a bike against a fence;

To wonder if you’d spot the theft

Of this one of you bathing; to condense,

• He suggests that he was tempted to steal a picture of her bathing because he thinks it has value.

In short, a past that no one now can share,

• Suggests that a part of him mourns the fact that he cannot go back and be apart of her life. The memory cannot be recaptured. A sense of foreboding as

No matter whose your future; calm and dry,

It holds you like a heaven. and you lie

Unvariably lovely there,

• The oxymoron ‘Unvariably lovely’ suggests that she is changing and no one can share the past with her (specifically the narrator)

Smaller and clearer as the years go by^^.^^

• The oxymoron ‘Smaller and clearer’ suggests that the photos are replacing the real memories with a perfect memory.

• Use of end-stop line.

Context

• Phillip Larkin had multiple relationships.

• Links to the Movements focus on nostalgia.