For Composition

Imagine you are a prosecutor addressing a court. Make an accusatory speech against Mrs. Conway.

UNIT 6. POETRY

Going, Going

by Ph. Larkin

I thought it would last my time

The sense that, beyond the town,

There would always be fields and farms,

Where the village louts could climb

Such trees as were not cut down;

I knew there’d be false alarms

In the papers about old streets

And split-level shopping, but some

Have always been left so far;

And when the old part retreats

As the bleak high-risers come

We can always escape in the car.

Things are tougher than we are, just

As earth will always respond

However we mess it about;

Chuck filth in the sea, if you must:

The tides will be clean beyond.

– But what do I feel now? Doubt?

Or age, simply? The crowd

Is young in the M1 cafe;

Their kids are screaming for more –

More houses, more parking allowed,

More caravan sites, more pay.

On the Business Page, a score

Of spectacled grins approve

Some takeover bid that entails

Five per cent profit (and ten

Per cent more in the estuaries): move

Your works to the unspoilt dales

(Grey area grants)! And when

You try to get near the sea

In summer...

It seems, just now,

To be happening so very fast;

Despite all the land left free

For the first time I feel somehow

That it isn’t going to last,

That before I snuff it, the whole

Boiling will be bricked in

Except for the tourist parts –

First slum of Europe: a role

It won’t be hard to win,

With a cast of crooks and tarts.

And that will be England gone,

The shadows, the meadows, the lanes,

The guildhalls, the carved choirs.

There’ll be books; it will linger on

In galleries; but all that remains

For us will be concrete and tyres.

Most things are never meant.

This won’t be, most likely: but greeds

And garbage are too thick-strewn

To be swept up now, or invent

Excuses that make them all needs.

I just think it will happen, soon.

Study and Discussion

1. Speak on the poem title. Does it convey the message of the poem?

2. What is the theme of the poem? Identify the subject matter of each stanza.

3. Does the poet perceive the things described as for the better or for the worse?

4. How is the preoccupation with time expressed in the poem?

5. The poem was written in 1973. Do you think its message is topical nowadays? Prove your point.

Exercises and Assignments

I. Comment on the external structure of the poem. What is special about the rhythm?

II. What vocabulary does the poet use most? Give examples of colloquial words.

III. Explain Larkin’s frequent usage of nouns with negative connotations such as louts, filth, slum, greeds and garbage.

IV. How is the struggle between the past and the present shown in stanza 2? What stylistic device is used?

V. What image of business words does the author create? Comment on the word collocation “spectacled grins”.

VI. Speak on the usage of alliteration throughout the poem. What ideas does it help to express?

VII. What effect do the tenses used create? How does the tense usage change from the beginning till the end of the poem?

VIII. Fill in the gaps using a suitable word or word combination from the synonymic row. Change the grammatical form of a word if necessary.

False, wrong, erroneous, mistaken

1. I wouldn’t like you to get the _________ impression. – I do enjoy the course, but I just find it very hard work. 2. He had a _________ notion that he would make a lot of money with his invention. 3. This title gives a _________ impression of what the book is actually about. 4. It would, however, be _________ to conclude that this unrest signaled a strengthening of opposition to the government.

Retreat, recede, retrograde, retract

1. …They danced round one another, throwing out and _________ their left fists like pawing horses (Shaw). 2. He stood at the ship’s stern watching the shore _________ from view. 3. After the failure of the first attack, the army _________. 4. Some races have been stationary, or even have _________ (Lubbock).

Escape, get clear, abandon

1. _________! The building is about to collapse. 2. The prisoner knocked the guard over the head and then _________. 3. The crew and passengers are preparing to _________.