Larkin’s An Arundel Tomb shows what Auden is talking about
when he says that “everything that we remember no matter how trivial…are
equally the subject of poetry”. Larkin’s poem is talking about a visit to a
tomb of a man and a woman. You wouldn’t normally think to write about something
like this. But with what Auden is saying in Poetry
as Memorable Speech poetry can be about anything “the mark on the wall, the
joke at luncheon, word games…” When I read this from Auden, I thought it was
really interesting. I had never thought about any subject to be considered a
poem.
When reading Larkin’s poems, I am not quite sure what his
tone is. Every poem he writes seems different. In An Arundel Tomb I think the
tone is kind of gleeful-mournful. He talks about how the tomb looks and that
the couple is holding hands, this to me is kind of gleeful. Then it goes on to
talk about how nobody knows who these people are they are just there to see the
tomb and this couple holding hands. This part is more sad and mournful because
when this couple died they never could have imagined that people would come to
see their tomb and not even know who they were in life.
Auden states that "Similes, metaphors of image or idea,
and auditory metaphors such as rhyme, assonance, and alliteration help further
to clarify and strengthen the pattern and internal relations of the experiences
described." In An Arundel Tomb,
Larkin’s rhyme scheme is very unique and it almost doesn’t sound as if he is
rhyming the lines but I think it’s this subtle way in which he does clarifies
and strengthens the poem.
In this poem of Larkin’s, there is a certain emotion talking
about the eternal love of the couple that lay in the tomb. Auden says that “it
must move our emotions”, which this I believe this poem does. The couple was
together in life and now will forever be together in afterlife.
Megan,
ReplyDeleteYou're headed toward a good post here, but there are a few things that I get stuck on.
1. This is too short. You could expand by adding specific analysis of complex lines (the last line?) or images.
2. There are some avoidable mistakes. Make sure to read over your writing. You're super-clever and you'll always want to put your best foot forward, so take a couple minutes to proofread.
3. Your analysis of the final line seems over-simplified. Is Larkin suggesting that this couple depicted on the tomb will be together forever? It seems to me that he's doubting that pretty strongly with some of the specific language of the poem and of the last two lines.
That's what my biggest suggestion comes from. If you quote specifics from the text and write about the specific effects of certain words, certain linebreaks, certain metaphors, you'll be able to more clearly express what you feel about this poem.
Also, what makes a poem memorable? Is it that it's original, or odd, or that it puts recognizable emotions in a different way, or that it shows us something unrecognizable? Auden, it seems to me, provides us with the opportunity to discover for ourselves what memorable language is. But I want to make sure you put forth your own theory.
So, what makes a poem memorable? You liked Thomas and pointed to his repetition. We have repetition in "An Arundel Tomb," too. Is that worth mentioning?
Cool. You got me thinking!