Dockery and Son by Philip Larkin

Dockery and Son by Philip Larkin

 

 

In this poem, we see the journey made by Larkin back in time as he revisits his old college and is given time to reflect how different his life has been to those who he went to college with. We see him comparing his life to Dockery as he attempt to decide who made the best and most rewarding life choices in their lives

 

The first stanza starts off where the Larkin persona is back at Oxford, talking to the Dean about when he used to study there and he has a 'flashback'. The flashback continues through the second stanza where he reflects on who Dockery was and how old he must have been when he had his son. Into the third stanza he apparently falls asleep and then wakes up in Sheffield where he eats "and awful pie". In the fourth stanza he wonders why Dockery took the path he did and how he is comfortable with his unchanging life and doesn't really see why Dockery would have wanted more out of life. The fifth stanza he comes to the conclusion that Dockery made a mistake in what he chose and Larkin's person made the correct decision and that Dockery was widely influenced by people, i.e. he family and relatives, who thought they knew the meaning to life. Then in the final stanza, Larkin comes to the conclusion that in the end, you are never truly content in life, but the inevitable truth is that you are going to die whether you like it or not.

 

One can notice the lexical field of death, with the words "death suited" or "black gowned", it conveys the rupture with the past, as if the persona of the poem was attending a funeral of his past. Indeed, a major theme of the poem is the shutting of doors, moments in life that you can't never turn back to. Larkin gives a visual description of that feeling of permanently lost moments that have turned into memories: "I try the door of where I used to live:/ Locked", the enjambment puts an emphasis on the word locked, (also called a reject). Larkin realises the inaccessibility of the past. Larkin compares his life to Dockery's, linked closely to the poem Self's the man, major theme of Larkin's poetry: missed opportunities. The reader can sense jealousy in the persona's voice, he too would like a wife of his own and a son. This is shown by the repetition of "no" : "To have no son no wife, No house". And repetition of nothing "For Dockery a son for me nothing, Nothing". The persona wishes to have a family but seems incompatible with his belief that love is not possible. The persona tries to justify the missed opportunities, he criticises Dockery "did he get this son at nineteen, twenty? Was he that withdrawn? "a son's harsh patronage".

 

Three quotes that stood out for me are as follows:

"To have no son, no wife,/No house or land still seemed quite natural."

"Why did he think adding meant increase?/To me it was dilution."

"Life is first boredom, then fear."