Ignorance

Ignorance
By Philip Larkin


Ignorance - Lacking knowledge or sophistication, (state of being) unaware, not understanding, lack of knowledge and information

In poem: Do not understand why "they" are doing something
- Acting on a lack of... knowledge, understanding, sophistication


See:
- 3 five line stanzas
- Use of enjambment - sure, flesh, die
- Use of rhyme - first line has no rhyme, ABBCC
- Consonance - Lots of S sounds, R sounds,
- Pronoun change
- Lots of commas
- Repetition of the word strange
- Contrast of knowledge/ignorance
- Italics in stanza 1
- Hyphen stanza 3
- First and second stanza starts with strange second, ends with strange, no strange in last stanza
- Second stanza - third line longer --> right in the middle of


For the oral commentary you need to talk about context

Stuff that we know about Larkin
-Use of puncuntation
-Repetition of consentience sounds
-emjament


What is the relationship between form and meaning?
The rhyming in every line except the first one gives the meaning a more light hearted feel even though of the strong meaning saying that we really don’t know anything.

Meaning of this poem.
-beliefs v. knowledge
-layers of ignorance
-sex and virginity
-death
-primal instincts
-both this and the mower have the I sound
-futile focus on the wrong elements.
-negative view on the action and habits of…


What is the form

There is a pronoun shift between the stanzas.
There is a rhyme
Enjambment-sure, flesh, die
Longer middle line
-Consonance-s, -r, -n, -ng words
Stanzas of equl number of lines


Connections between the meaning and form.

Death to enjambment (sure, flesh, die)—because it’s a new beginning. Enjambment kind of breaks

Sex+virginity-longer middle line- second stanza is about sex. (death and sex)

The Mower

English Class Notes

The Mower
Style

The Last stanza is a couplet
Stanza
Stanza 3/3/3/2 (333x2=666—connection with title-is the mower a devilish figure)

Symbolism (In the Zodiac, a hedgehog can represent: happiness, energy Does the mower kill happiness an energy (in the persona?)

Hedgehog –symbolic of…
-thorny outside
-cute
-you can hold it in a certain way comfortably, but hold it a different way it can hurt
-Small
-Mammel
-innocent

The use of enjambment/punctuation emphasizes specific words and phrases
Killed, unmendably, burial was no help. We should be careful, once twice kneeling mauled

-ed verbs

assonce/consonance
-ED sounds
-Hard S sounds
-Kind/Time

Larkins Style

-vugar language
-enjament
-4 lines per stanza
-a little bit of rhyme
-

High Windows by Philip Larkin

-Why the use of the "s" sound
-What does the beginning part of the poem have to do with it?
-How old is the persona
-why is paradise having sex, taking the pill, and wearing a diaphragm
-was the persona one of the kids described in the beginning of the poem?
-what's with the "go done the long slide" and does it represent the long slide-metaphor
-Does Larkin have something against religion
-what is the effect of the simile- "like free bloody birds"
-what's the motif of bonds and freedom-why?
-Is there a feeling at of regretg
-whats an outdated combine harvester?
-does the persona feel jealous towards youth
-who is the he
whats the effect in the last sentence using nothing nowhere and endless

notices
-k/d/z sounds
-the sences-motif
-fuck is normalling used to with words with anger


After we get the form of the poem
-the real poem the little reflective part is in italics
-4 lines in each stanza and 5 stanza
-last 2 stanzas rhyme (a/b/a/b//c/d/c/d) (no ture line stanza
-frequent enjambment-12 words-between every single stanza- paradise, slide, dark, immediately
-3rd stanza"to happiness" is emphasized
-4 sentences total (endlessy priest birds endless)
-2 words before and after the italics part
-hard k d and s sound (z) also
-title "High windows"
-last 3 major words in the last line -diction
-first stanza by itself has a very different meaning than that larger poem


Possible meanings
-the persona is looking back on life before he commits suicide
-going to hell
-reflection
-life flashes before your life.
-elevation
-happiness
-youth
-religion
-middle age crisis (crisis of confidence a certain age
-critique of poetry and art

next please

Rhyme Scheme = AABB different from all other poems
6 4 line stanzas
Enjambment = we day clear stalks balks tits it's unload owed back wake
Last line always shorter in stanza - makes the words in it more pronounced
Anticipation
Clear message
Not too vulgar
The new form makes me read it more because when it's jumbled I lost some key words

14 commas, 6 periods, 2 semicolons, 1 colon, 2 exclamation points.
Some rhyme: day/say, clear/near, waste/haste, stalks/balks, prinked/distinct, past/last, unload/owed, long/wrong, wake/break
Assonance
Nautical motif
Death
s sounds, b sounds, w sounds
We/she/they
Description of boat

Emotion-
- Reflective
- Regret
- Expectancy --> dissapointment
- Hope
- Anger
- Anticipation
- "something always approaching"
- seems slow
- waiting
- it's gone as soon as it's here
- nothing lasts forever
- death is the only thing that's final
- Mockery/Stupidity