Realism in Philip Larkin's poem

         Introduction

Romantic poetry is the poetry of reality dreams, whereas poetry of realism is the expression of pragmatism. Poets of realism do not escape from sufferings of life instead they portray life as it is. They show their readers the real concept of life. Dreams are temporary but reality is permanent. Philip Larkin is the finest realistic poet. He is famous for illustrating realistic images. He is also called the poet of movement. Poetry of movement is close to reality.

Larkin's poetic world is ordinary. He does not talk about a specific nation or person but speaks about every person living in the modern world. Moreover, he does not idealize the world; his poetic world is full of problems; every person shares a common theme viz. death. Philip Larkin remains faithful to his work. He is a true realistic poet. He knows how to present reality. He is well aware about the modern needs. There was a time when people find pleasure in artificiality. Fairy tales were believed true. Utopian words were created by the poets but in modern days people do not like imaginative worlds; they want truthful literature which is only possible through realism.

Realism in the poem 'Ambulances'

First and foremost poem of Philip Larkin, which paint realistic world, is "Ambulances". With the theme of death, Philip Larkin shows fear on the faces of people. He has not romanticized death nor has he escaped from this universal truth; instead he creates true images. Most of the objects are related to death. Fear can be observed on the faces of women and children. Every object of the poem including ambulances, roads, women, children, stretchers in fact everything is realistic. There is social realism in the poem. There is no supernatural elements and no imaginary world. The poet has not showed that the world should be better. He has just observed things minutely and put them infront of the readers. He has expressed fear, tension, and psychological condition of people after seeing ambulance. Realistic poetry can only be analyzed if it is compared to romantic poetry. Let's compare it with the "Rime of Ancient Mariner". S.T. Coleridge has and supernatural elements in it. It is not necessary that every reader believes in them. On the other hand, if " Ambulances" is real, everyone will share the same concept. We cannot say that there are some objects, which are imaginary and there is no reality in them. Truth is illustrated in the poem "Ambulances", therefore, is believed by every reader.

Realism in the poem 'The Explosion'

'The Explosion' is perfectly realistic. It is the aftermath of the explosion. A funeral service is held in the local church where the priest tries to console the grief-stricken members of the mining community by telling them that the dead are now sitting comfortably in God's house, and that one day the surviving members of the community would see the departed ones face to face. Towards the end of the poem, comes the most important idea of the poem. It seems to the widows of the dead men that their husbands have come back to life, and that they now look larger than they ever did during their lifetime. The widows also perceive the sterling qualities of their husbands who are now seen "walking somehow" from the direction of the sun towards them; and one of whom holds the lark's eggs unbroken. The closing lines of the poem have thus a visionary quality; and the action of one of the man holding the eggs unbroken symbolizes some kind of achievement. These men, who now look larger than they ever did in the course of their lives, have been exalted by death. They are treated here as martyrs who have been elevated and been endowed with a kind of greatness by death. 

Realism in the poem 'Toads Revisited'

The realism in the poem is noteworthy for its vividness. The manner in which some people spend their time uselessly has realistically been depicted and yet in a manner which imparts a certain novelty to it. Larkin's talent for phrase-making is also evidence here. "Palsied old step- takers" and "waxed- fleshed out patents" are examples of his capacity to coin phrases to suit his purpose.  Another noteworthy feature of this poem is its colloquial style:

  "No give me my in-tray" and "give me your arm, old toad."

Realism in the poem 'The Whitsun Wedding'

The Whitsun Wedding is a poem of social and cultural attitudes, and not just a poem of direct and realistic description. The speaker in the poem defines his role in contemporary society in terms of "reading", and his position as an "intellectual" largely determines his presentation of events. The poem highlights differences in taste and value, as we see in the speaker's comic but rather prim response to "girls in parodies of fashion".  The fourth stanza offers a characteristically middle class perspective of common life: " The fathers with broad belts under their suits" etc. The details of dress and behaviour in this stanza immediately show that its perspective belongs to someone of a different class and culture, someone who is unimpressed by what he perceives as the gaudy, second rate products of the time: the gloves are nylon, not silk; and the jewellery is a cheap imitation of the real thing. The poem accordingly leaves itself open to a charge of snobbery and class consciousness. This critic then goes on to say that the interest of The Whitsun Weddings lies not just in what is seen but in how it is seen. It is the particularity and relativity of vision which is emphasized in the poem: "each face seemed to define just what it saw". The speaker's perception proves to be limited and even faulty; he reveals how on a second and more curious inspection he "saw it all again in different terms". But even then the poem scrupulously avoids making any final judgement on what the day's events might signify. The poem moves repeatedly from the detached perspective of the speaker towards a more participatory and communal perspective.

His style is Realistic

If Larkin's style was traditional, the subject matter of his poetry was derived exclusively from modern life. Press contended that Larkin's artistic work " delineates with considerable force and delicacy the pattern of contemporary sensibility, tracing the way in which we respond to our environment, plotting the ebb and flow of the emotional flux within, embodying in his poetry attitudes of heart and mind that seem peculiarly characteristic of our time: doubt, insecurity, boredom, aimlessness and malise". A sense that life is a finite prelude to oblivion underlies many of Larkin's poems. King suggests that the work is "a poetry of disappointment, of the destruction of romantic illusions, of man's defeat by time and his own inadequacies", as well as a study of how dreams, hopes and ideals "are relentlessly diminished by the realities of life".

Conclusion

Larkin arrived at his conclusion candidly, concerned to expose  evasions so that the reader might stand " naked but honest, 'less deceived'... before the realities of life and death, " to quote King. Larkin himself offers rather wry description of his accomplishments, an assessment that, despite its levity, links him emotionally to his work. In 1979 he told the Observer: "I think writing about unhappiness is probably the source of my popularity, if I have any... Deprivation is for me what daffodils were for Wordsworth. "