The Whitsun Weddings by Philip Larkin

The Whitsun Weddings by Philip Larkin

The poem that Larkin wrote is in a story form, personal to the narrator. it is in first person, but it isn't Larkin, but instead the persona or I-speaker. It is a journey on a train, from, as we can assume, Hull to London, over the long weekend of the Whitsun. As the poem progresses, we get the idea that despite originally being about what he actually sees, it turns into what he think what he sees means and how it relates to his life as a person.

In the first stanza, Larkin describes to us the intense heat and how it is a struggle for him to begin to move. By the second stanza he is moving, picking up speed as he whizzes through the countryside. Only when we reach stanza three do we see him actually start to notice the weddings and begin to look out for them in anticipation. The fourth stanza shows us as reader his judgmental and mocking side where he describes the working class families in a very crude and low manner, assuming they are all the same and falling into the trap of societies stereotyping. The fifth stanza shows us how he now sees where these people may have come from and the detail in which he is watching the newly wed couples climb onto the train. In the sixth stanza we see the focus leaving the couples and landing on the other family member left behind on the platform. It also shows the train moving off and heading in a one way course to London. In the seventh stanza, a more direct view is given to the landscape, we begin to see the countryside gradually change as they approach the city, it becomes busier and more buildings show up. In the final stanza, Larkin concludes with deciding that everyone's lives are intertwined like railroad tracks and that once we reach the station, we all fan out "like an arrow-shower,/sent out of sight, somewhere becoming rain."

Language and imagery: The language of the first part of the poem appeals to our senses - the feel of the 'hot cushions', the sight of cars' 'blinding windscreens' reflecting the sun, the smell of the fish-dock, of grass and of the train's upholstery. A warm, sleepy atmosphere is created which draws the reader in. Larkin gives us quick snapshots of the passing landscape. As in the poem 'Here', we see industry as well as countryside. The canal's 'industrial froth' and the 'new and nondescript' towns with 'acres of dismantled cars' suggest that Larkin doesn't find modern scenery entirely sympathetic. When he finally notices the wedding parties he is ruthless in his description of their style - the women?s dresses are 'parodies of fashion', they are 'grinning' (a word often associated with stupidity) and 'pomaded' (covered in hair gel). The mothers are 'loud and fat', the uncles 'shout smut' the fathers are sweaty ('seamy foreheads'). You might consider whether Larkin's presentation of the wedding parties also reflects his view of their social class.

Three quotes that stood out for me are a follows:
"I leant/More promptly out next time, more curiously,/And saw it all again on different terms:"
"The women shared/The secret like a happy funeral:"
"this frail/Travelling coincidence; and what it held"