Larkin

In Philip Larkin’s collection, ‘The Whitsun Weddings’ and Dannie Abse’s collection ‘Welsh Retrospective’, both poets create a sense of place as they write about their own environments. Larkin uses a more detached observation as he uses a third person viewpoint, seen in ‘Here’ and ‘The Whitsun Weddings’, where he shows the journey of life. This differs to Abse, who presents a personal connection with the place and in the poems ‘Last Visit to 198 Cathedral Road’ and ‘Return to Cardiff’; Abse uses these places to evoke memories.

‘Here’ is the first poem in Philip Larkin’s collection, so it suggest that it has a significant importance, however controversially he uses a detached viewpoint, seen through the use of a third person narrative, so there is no personal connection. Larkin describes a journey through the use of extended enjambment, which creates a sped-up tone and a fast pace to the poem. At the beginning of the stanza, it is suggested that it set in the city, “industrial shadows” and “traffic”, then towards the end of the stanza, it is suggested that it is set in the countryside with “scarecrows, haystacks and pheasants” and “solitude”. The peacefulness of the countryside is also suggested by the fact the use of alliterated words, “swerving”, “solitude”, “skies” and “scarecrows”, which are also emphasized because of the repeated sibilant sound of the words. Stanza 2 is set in the town of Hull, which seems very cluttered, from the use of listing and the sped-up tone. This continues into stanza 3, until towards the end of the stanza when the train moves into a suburban area, “out beyond its mortgaged half-built edges fast-shadowed wheat-fields” where “loneliness clarifies” Syntax and enjambment across the stanzas is used to emphasis this “loneliness” of the people that live in the area as it seems to define their lives. In the last stanza, it is suggested that the narrator is at the end of his train journey as he has arrived at the beach, or it could be