Reaction to Love Songs in Age

From the poem we see sheet music that has been forgotten about over the years that have been worn and torn by everyday life and have almost become part of the furniture. However, when the woman in the poem has become widowed, she discovers the music, as if waiting for her, and she remembers how she used to play them. The poem talks of how love promises so many things and then does not deliver. "It had not done so then, and could not now".  - This could connotate that thoughts of marriage in her youth did not please her, and it still does not now and also that she never wanted to get married to start with, but love promised so much for her but failed to deliver. 

Reaction to Mr Bleaney

Mr Bleaney is about the persona going to visit a flat in a industrial area and learning through the landlord that the previous occupant was a man called Mr Bleaney. The persona then through the characteristics of the flat feels like he knows Mr Bleaney and all of his habits. We get the impression that the persona views himself superior to Mr Bleaney but towards the end it becomes apparent that the persona thinks they are more a like than he thought. 

Reaction to Dockery & Son

In Dockery & Son we see the persona reminiscing about his time at University in his youth when the Dean their speaks of the personas old friend Dockery, informing him that Dockery's son now goes there now. The persona is then transported back through his youth there, remembering the things that himself and Dockery used to do.
We see the persona question whether having a son is a good thing, with the persona asking why Dockery thought that he should be added to by increasing the number of Dockery's in the world, when the persona thinks that this has actually diluted Dockery Snr, now that he has had a son.
We also see the persona reflect on his own life, wondering where all his time has gone and he reveals to us that he has no wife, son or house, yet he is comfortable living like this.

'Not from what
We think truest, or most want to do:
Those warp tight-shut, like doors. They're more a style
Our lives bring with them: habit for a while,
Suddenly they harden into all we've got'

I think Larkin is here saying that there is no free will -- we are the product of the choices we've made and we only do things because of the choices we've previously made in our lives. In the poem there is an epiphany, that being life goes quickly, and every life choice you makes narrows down the options for your next set of choices until one day you get to an age when you realise your stuck with them and can't go back.

analysis of Dannie Abse's Sons

Reaction to Talking in Bed

Talking in Bed to me, seemed like a paradox. Throughout the poem there were so many opposites - 'easiest' and 'unrest', 'honest' and 'untrue', 'together' and 'isolation'. I think that as you read the poem, it becomes apparent that this is not young love, but middle aged/old love, something that has lasted for a long time. I think there is a message towards the end of how young loves words are 'true and kind' but when love has aged, it no longer stays that way and I think that perhaps Larkin is saying here that being kind is not always being true.

Reaction to Self's the Man

I felt that Self's the Man was quite easy to understand and to pick up the message of the poem. The persona throughout seems to be joking and is quite hyperbolic, so it leaves you questioning how much you can actually believe. The fact that there is consistently rhyming couplets throughout the poem not only makes it sound like a limeric, but also like the persona is mocking Arnold and the life he has chosen. Whilst it is apparent that the persona has actively chosen not to marry because he wants peace, and feels that marriage will be the death of you, the persona recognizes that this is the life Arnold has chosen, and that even though the persona has pointed out all the stress Arnold goes through, Arnold is not to be pitied. I understood the line 'without them sending a van' to be like death, and that through the stress that marriage and children brings, it would send Arnold to an early grave.
I think there is an underlying message in this poem that Larkin has made about life choices, and how they cannot be changed once you've made them and I think for this reason the poem links well with Larkin's other poem, Dockery & Son.

Reaction to Broadcast

I enjoyed Broadcast and got the impression from the poem that not only was it dedicated to his love for music, but also to the woman in the poem. It sounds to me like the persona and the woman are sharing the experience together, even though they are separated.Whilst this is happening, the persona is also trying to capture the sounds of the concert in words, by using onomatopoeia and sibilance and at one point has personified the violin, making it 'snivel'.