Theme

Love and Relationships

The Poem

Latest face, so effortless

Your great arrival at my eyes,

No one standing near could guess

Your beauty had no home till then;

Precious vagrant, recognise

My look, and do not turn again.

Admirer and admired embrace

On a useless level, where

I contain your current grace,

You my judgement; yet to move

Into real untidy air

Brings no lasting attributive -

Bargains, suffering and love,

Not this always-planned salute.

Lies grow dark around us: will

The statue of your beauty walk?

Must I wade behind it, till

Something’s found - or is not found -

Far too late for turning back?

Or, if I will not shift my ground,

Is your power actual - can

Denial of you duck and run,

Stay out of sight and double round,

Leap from the sun with mask and brand

And murder and not understand?

Analysis

Latest face, so effortless

• Insulting connotations - degrades and objectifies women, dehumanising them and focusing solely on their physical appearance. It conveys a sense of impersonality.

Your great arrival at my eyes,

• Use of singular pronouns suggest misogyny - she is only noticed due to her physical appearance.

No one standing near could guess

• Suggests distance between the couple.

Your beauty had no home till then;

• Suggests that she previously had no worth, and that women exist to please men.

Precious vagrant, recognise

• Oxymoron - patronising.

• Connotations of homelessness.

• Suggests that women are viewed as commodities

My look, and do not turn again^^.^^

• Imperative - the narrator does not want her to find someone else.

• End-stop line.

Admirer and admired embrace

• Alliteration.

On a useless level, where

I contain your current grace,

• personal pronoun - suggests that the narrator feels possessive over her beauty, however he recognises that it will not last. It could be interpreted that once she ages and ‘loses’ her beauty, he will no longer like her as he only likes her for her looks.

You my judgement; yet to move

• Volta (discourse marker).

Into real untidy air

• There’s a suggestion that the narrator does not want to be in a committed relationship due to the responsibility and ‘untidy’ nature of relationships and what they do to his feelings.

Brings no lasting attributive -

Bargains, suffering and love,

Not this always-planned salute^^.^^

• Use of end-stop line.

Lies grow dark around us: will

Distinct change in tone, suggesting that relationships change and become untruthful.

The statue of your beauty walk^^?^^

• Metaphor - suggests that the woman in the relationship has no emotions (or if she does, they are not valid), objectifying her.

• Use of rhetorical question.

Must I wade behind it, till

• Allusions to walking through deep waters, suggesting that relationships are difficult.

Something’s found - or is not found -

Far too late for turning back^^?^^

• Repetition of rhetorical questions - the narrator is questioning the value of romantic relationships, suggesting that he does not think that relationships are worth the effort.

Or, if I will not shift my ground,

Is your power actual - can

Denial of you duck and run,

Stay out of sight and double round,

Leap from the sun with mask and brand

• Personification - he believes that by suppressing his emotions, they will murder him.

• Brand = a weapon, like an ax or sword

And murder and not understand^^?^^

• Suggests that his denial of his feelings towards her will cause him to turn insane.

• Rhetorical question.

Context

• About relationships and his opinions about them.

• Latest Face is about one of his ex-lovers, Winifred Arnott and his opinions about women.

• Phillip Larkin has misogynistic traits, similar to his father. He was reported saying that ‘Women are stupid beings’.