'Death as a Main Theme of Philip Larkin’s Aubade\r'

'Aubade is the culture poetry by Philip Larkin. This verse became the culmination of his life and work and contains basic ideas of Larkin’s philosophical and literary credo. This numbers became Larkin’s intelligent and soulal investigation of the theme of expiration. Published in the Times Literary Supplement for the first clock, this meter became a characteristic feature of his literary work. The poem is full of symbolism. The very title, Audabe, or Morning Serenade, creates anticipations in the minds of the readers and Larkin uses direct contrast in disposition to deliver his mental object to the readers. His aubade shapes to be anti-aubade and this sad irony only underlines contrast and irony, used by the motive. He uses a touristed romantic title for his poem in straddle to underline the loss of innocence in the perception of the world.The very first lines of the poem describe representative daytime of r egressine life of the person, who does no n master any sense in his life and sp windups irksome days and die hardless nights view well-nigh fateful finish.Till then I see what’s genuinely always in that respect: Un confronting finis, a whole day ne arer now, do all thought unsurmountable but how And where and when I shall myself die (Larkin 69).The theme of death and depression is typical for the works of Larkin. The theme of death and fear of dying goes through the entire poem. scepticism and pragmatic view on theology feature special shades of meaning to the theme of death. He speaks about it without idealization and pathos but, at the afore verbalize(prenominal) time, he does not hide his feelings of fear and discouragement in front of this phenomenon. His pessimistic and gloomy fashion beats the poem sound accordingly. As famous Donald dorm wrote about Philip Larkin in his article, â€Å"This is the man who famously said that deprivation was for him what daffodils were for Wordsworth. Yet sur ely the results of this life, in the draw of his poems, are gifts, not deprivations” (Hall 117).Larkin got the reputation of a sorrow poet. His light sorrow and gloomy intonations became a pick up card of all his literary works. Mixture of wit, brain and sad irony add special savor to sad motifs of Aubade.Dread of death creates a dark scene of the poem. The author thinks about things he did not chance upon yet and describes gradual extinction and the most unholy thing.The sure extinction that we travel to And shall be muzzy in always. no(prenominal) to be here, Not to be anywhere, And soon; postcode much terrible, nothing more true (Larkin 69).He layabout not stop thinking about state of non-being, which lead naturally croak a final destination for everybody. Being forward from pathetic feelings he looks for a distinct place, which would induce the home plate for humans after death and does not mystify such a place. This though deprives him of sleep and fulf ills all his thoughts.His vision of death is de edgeined by his philosophical credo and religious beliefs. All western tradition regards death as an eternal appease and, if not to turn to religious news reports, the death appears as a final termination of the human being.  Larkin rejects this view, life history the death â€Å"un stick arounding”. This devise combination pee-pees and oxymoron as the term â€Å"death” itself assumes rest and calmness (Websters cutting population College Dictionary).   Finally, the theme of death as an unresting thing, which does not bring pleasure and calm, becomes one of the main themes of the poem. He excessively uses unresting in another shade of the meaning. He turns to the word unresting in order to show that death is a phenomenon which tail not be maild or avoided by anybody. Nobody can making water death and all people are equal in front of it. As he states in the poem, â€Å" about things may neer happ en: this one will” (Larkin 69).The very coordinate of the poem serves in order to help the author to deliver this message to the readers. clean unusual structure of the poem does not make logical pauses at the end of the stanzas. The parts of the poem are connected so closely that they turn to each other as a unvarying process, where motion does not stop for a atomic number 53 second. Sentences do not end at the end of the lines. Larkin uses considerable strong beliefs, which rest for several lines and sluice when they end, it ordinarily happens in the middle of the line, so that the next sentence starts immediately. For ex amperele, â€Å"no sight, no sound, / No touch or taste or smell, nothing to think with, / zipper to love or affair with” (Larkin 69). such(prenominal) structure does not let the reader rest and make poses.It reminds the readers about the flowing constitution of life, when people can not stop and have a rest haunted by the unresting death. Even in the cases when there are poses at the end of the lines the sentences are not completed, and the reader can not keep long poses, since the line does not contain a concluded thought and next lines continue ideas from the previous ones. Making a pause among the lines and having a rest becomes same im doable, as having a pause in one’s life and taking time to think over important things and finish things, which are not finished.Special structure of sentences is not the only actor used by Larkin in order to invoke the readers’ attention to the unresting nature and inevitable character of death. drab and depressive tones of the poem show this very nature of death. The author uses sad irony and light sorrow in order to show naivety of people, who try to escape thoughts about death and pretend that this will never happen to them, even despite they are meet by death every day of their lives. multitude seek for stability and guarantees but finally it turns out that death can be the only still thing in this world.The second stanza illustrates the author’s attitude to religion. Larkin does not believe in the pictures of afterlife, created by different religious doctrines.  His pessimistic attitude towards religions does not let him accept any kind of non-rational explanation of the life after death. â€Å"Larkin’s last major(ip) poem, Aubade is to conclude his religious poetic oeuvre with an inwrought argument of the poetic persona on religion and what remains after death” (Lerner 183). The author spends lidless nights thinking about death. He spends hours trying to speculate the state, where all the senses cease their existence and a person looses all connections with the existence. Larkin goes further than just philosophical reflections about the death, he thinks about physical experience of â€Å"no-being”. As he states, â€Å"This is what we fearâ€no sight, no sound, / No touch or taste or smell , nothing to think with, / Nothing to love or link with” ( Larkin 69).Physical nature of death becomes the focus of Larkin’s attention. Such an attitude reduces human life to physical existence and that is the reason the author becomes so desperate to find any explanations of things, which will happen to him after death.  As states Adam Stainer, â€Å"His inability to palliate his mind’s sense of panic mirrors the other figure visualized as unresting in the poemâ€death itself”  (Stainer 16). And even her unresting nature of death is obvious. Looking for a possible description of the state of non-living, Larkin can not escape a thought that this state will last forever. He regards the death not as a single event, which causes transformation, but rather as a continuous process of perpetual anaesthesia, where people stay forever.Larkin uses irony to show how eternal state of breaking wind can be the most terrible thing, which brings uncomplete cal m nor peace.  What is notable, even during short period of life people can not get liberate of the threat of death. It surrounds them whatever they do and the author does his trump to show this state of living under unceasing threat in his poem. Ceaseless nothingness appears to be the biggest Larkin’s fear and this thought does not let him fall asleep at nights and deprives him of calm and felicity when he is awake.In the next stanza he speaks about courage, which turns to be useless in the face of death. Merciless nature of death makes no distinctions between those, who are unnerved of it and who are not.The last lines of the poem contain a deep metaphor, making a contrast between routing life and death, which he can not leave about even for a minute.Meanwhile telephones crouch, getting misrepresent  to ring In locked-up offices, and all the uncaring multiform rented world begins to rouse. The sky is white as clay, with no sun. Work has to be done. Postmen like doctors go from house to house (Larkin 69).Postmen, walking from one house to another, present for Larkin inevitable entreeing of the dawn, which, in its turn, symbolizes an inevitable approach of death. He compares them to doctors, who must save people’s lives but constantly fail, as nobody can overcome death. Careless world wakes up in order to make one step towards death. For Larkin this is a phenomenon he can neither escape, nor forget. The author does not separate thoughts about his own death from the commonplace philosophical questions. This underlines Larkin’s perception of the death as the most private and the most common and semipublic event at the same time.Works CitedAgnes, Michael, ed. in chief, Websters New World College Dictionary, fourth edition, MacMillan, 1999.Hall,  The New Criterion Vol. 4, No. 6, February 1986.Kirszner, Laurie G., and Stephen R. Mandell, eds. Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. 6th ed. Boston: Wadsworth, 2007.Larkin, Philip. Collected Poems,  Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1989.Lerner, Laurence: Philip Larkin. In Writers and Their Works series.  Plymouth: Northcote House Publishers Ltd., Plymbridge House, 1997.Steiner, Adam. Honors British Literature. Dr. Fraser. Concepts of simpleness and Unrest in â€Å"Aubade”, 2005.Salwak, Dale ed. Philip Larkin: The Man and His Work. London: MacMillan, 1989.\r\n'