Death as a Main Theme of Philip Larkin’s Aubade

Aubade is the last metrical composition by Philip Larkin. This song became the culmination of his animation and head for the hills and deals basic ideas of Larkins philosophical and literary credo. This poem became Larkins obscure and individualal investigation of the writing of wipeout. Published in the Times literary Supplement for the first time, this poem became a referenceistic feature of his literary work. The poem is full of symbolism. The very title, Audabe, or Morning Serenade, creates anticipations in the passs of the readers and Larkin uses lineage in order to deliver his message to the readers. His aubade turns to be anti-aubade and this drab derision only netherlines contrast and sarcasm, used by the write. He uses a usual romantic title for his poem in order to underline the sledding of innocence in the perception of the world.The very first lines of the poem chance upon typical day of routine tone of the person, who does non see either sense in hi s brio and spends dull days and sleepless nights cerebration close to inevitable final stage.Till then I see whats very always there Un last outing devastation, a whole day ne atomic number 18r now, fashioning exclusively thought impossible but how And where and when I shall myself die (Larkin 69).The theme of remainder and depression is typical for the works of Larkin. The theme of termination and idolatry of dying goes through the entire poem. Scepticism and pragmatic view on religion give supererogatory shades of meaning to the theme of death. He speaks about(predicate) it without idealization and pathos but, at the alike(p) time, he does non hide his feelings of fear and despair in front of this phenomenon. His pessimistic and sluggish mood makes the poem sound accordingly. As famous Donald Hall wrote about Philip Larkin in his article, This is the man who famously said that deprivation was for him what daffodils were for Wordsworth. Yet surely the results of th is life, in the shape of his poems, are gifts, non deprivations (Hall 117).Larkin got the reputation of a drab poet. His light sorrow and gloomy intonations became a visit card of all his literary works. Mixture of wit, humour and sad irony add special zest to sad motifs of Aubade.Dread of death creates a dark background of the poem. The author commends about issues he did non accomplish yet and describes gradual extinguishing and the nigh terrible thing.The sure extinction that we travel to And shall be answerless in always. none to be here, Not to be anywhere, And soon postal code more terrible, nonhing more true (Larkin 69).He place non part with thinking about state of non-being, which leave naturally become a final destination for everybody. Being away from pathetic feelings he looks for a distinct place, which would become the tolerate for humans by and by death and does not find such a place. This though deprives him of sleep and fulfills all his thoughts.His reverie of death is de boundaryined by his philosophical credo and religious beliefs. tout ensemble Western tradition regards death as an eternal rest and, if not to turn to religious explanations, the death appears as a final limit of the human public.Larkin rejects this view, calling the death unresting. This word combination makes and oxymoron as the term death itself assumes rest and calmness (Websters New World College Dictionary). Finally, the theme of death as an unresting thing, which does not bring pleasure and calm, becomes champion of the main themes of the poem. He also uses unresting in an another(prenominal) shade of the meaning. He turns to the word unresting in order to show that death is a phenomenon which can not be bring outd or avoided by anybody. Nobody can escape death and all people are equal in front of it. As he states in the poem, Most things may never happen this one will(Larkin 69).The very structure of the poem serves in order to help the author t o deliver this message to the readers. Somewhat 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 continuous process, where motion does not stop for a single second. Sentences do not end at the end of the lines. Larkin uses pertinacious sentences, which rest for several lines and even when they end, it usually happens in the middle of the line, so that the next sentence starts immediately. For example, no sight, no sound, / No touch or taste or smell, nothing to think with, / Nothing to love or link with(Larkin 69). Such structure does not let the reader rest and make poses.It reminds the readers about the flowing nature of life, when people can not stop and have a rest haunted by the unresting death. scour 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 contai n a terminated thought and next lines continue ideas from the preceding ones. Making a pause between the lines and having a rest becomes kindred impossible, as having a pause in ones life and taking time to think over important things and finish things, which are not finished.Special structure of sentences is not the only means used by Larkin in order to attract the readers attention to the unresting nature and inevitable character of death. Gloomy 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 surrounded by death every day of their lives. People seek for stability and guarantees but in the long run it turns out that death can be the only stable thing in this world.The second stanza illustrates the authors attitude to religion. Larkin does not opine in the pictures of afterli fe, 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. Larkins last major poem, Aubade is to conclude his religious poetic body of work with an internal argument of the poetic persona on religion and what dust after death (Lerner 183). The author spends sleepless nights thinking about death. He spends hours trying to imagine 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 no-being. As he states, This is what we fearno 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 direction of Larkins attention. Such an attitude reduces human life to physical existence and that is the reason the author beco mes so desperate to find any explanations of things, which will happen to him after death. As states Adam Stainer, His inability to palliate his minds sense of panic mirrors the other figure depicted as unresting in the poemdeath itself (Stainer 16). And even her unresting nature of death is obvious. looking for 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 nothingness can be the intimately terrible thing, which brings neither calm nor peace. What is notable, even during short period of life people can not get rid of the threat of death. It surrounds them any(prenominal) they do and the author does his best to show this state of living under constant threat in his poem. Ceaseless nothingness appears to be the biggest Larkins fear and this thought does not let him fall asleep at nights and deprives him of calm and happiness 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 afraid 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 forget about even for a minute.Meanwhile telephones crouch, getting ready to ring In locked-up offices, and all the uncaring complex 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, symbolize for Larkin inevitable approaching of the dawn, which, in its turn, symbolizes an inevitable approach of death. He compares them to doctors, who must save peoples lives but constantly fail, as nobody can overcome d eath. 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 general philosophical questions. This underlines Larkins perception of the death as the most private and the most common and public 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 firm Publishers Ltd., Plymbridge House, 1997.Steiner, Adam. Honors British Literature. Dr. Fraser. Concepts of Rest and Unrest in Aubade, 2005.Salwak, Dale ed. Philip Larkin The Man and His Work. London M acMillan, 1989.