Here, Larkin

Here

 Here is a short piece detailing a protagonist's journey through the countryside and his inability to accept the neglect humans give Mother Nature as a whole. He compares the lifestyle of a busy, crowded town to the serenity of a gorgeous sunset, and talks glumly of the people living in a place which endorses in modern day commercialism. 

 The poem doesn't follow specifically to a rhyming scheme, only at the beginning does it follow ABAB CDDC before moving into the swarming city centre where all sense of control and flow leaves Larkin’s mind. There’s still a large use of alliteration which is consistent from beginning to end in the poem, first extenuating the beauty of nature compared to the industrial town he came from, where “rich industrial shadows” loom and the fields “too thin and thistled” to be meadows sit.

 He explains the mud as being “shining” and “gull-marked”, and the clouds as “piled gold” making obvious, from the off-set, his admiration for the delicacies of the earth and the importance of appreciating it.

 Using “gold” to describe clouds could also relate to the desperation people endure throughout their life to achieve impossible goals, always floating away, just out of reach, with each “piled” cloud representing another man’s inability to achieve.

  At first notice, Larkin describes the town indifferently, not having any inclination to have negative feelings towards it and even notes some of the historical “domes and statues, spires” before describing the “cranes” which “cluster.”

 There is a direct contrast between the words associated with historic elements that appear in his vision to the modern structures built to develop and change the society and village surrounding him, which he particularly disagrees with, saying the town is “Facing the sun, untalkative, out of reach.”

 “Facing the sun” sounds almost disappointing – he exaggerates the importance of appreciating the natural world we’re living in, not becoming obsessed in a culture that is obsessed with “cheap suits, red kitchen ware” and “sharp shoes”, and the positioning of this town, on the brink of “wheat-fields, running high as hedges” and a lonely, serene beach.

 He even describes the edge of the town as being “mortgaged, half-built edges” in order to ridicule the townspeople who are living in these areas and engaging in a community so down-trodden from his own, superior class.

 Throughout the majority of the poem, Larkin is degrading and insulting to people who follow modern culture rather than his own, appreciative, intelligent outlook on life, presenting a tone of resentment towards modern living. He highlights the downsides of the developments happening around him - the "residents from raw estates," "stealing flat-faced trolleys," and "electric mixers, toasters, washers, driers" all denoted as crowding the beautiful city and tainting it with their "tattoo shops" and "consulates."