The Whitsun Weddings, Larkin

The Whitsun Weddings

 The Whitsun Weddings describes a train journey on a hot day, upon which the protagonist, written from first person, comes upon a wedding, describing how “at first” he “didn’t notice what a noise the weddings made.”

 Like a lot of his poems, The Whitsun Weddings includes admirable depictions of nature, even in the “tall heat” that surrounds him. He describes the train itself as being an impermeable room, much like the ambulance in Ambulances, relating himself as though they’re connected in some way, explaining “we ran behind the backs of houses,” and using the rhythm and rhyming scheme of ABABCDECDE to mimic the actions of the train, with the shorter stanzas used occasionally to show the alternating speed.

 The language used in this particular poem places focus on the senses, particularly at the beginning where we are exposed to the “cushions hot,” “smell of grass” and the “blinding windscreens,” and creates a setting and atmosphere for the readers to become indulged in. It seems yellow, sleepy and warm, and would reason for why the train is described in an admiring manner by the protagonist, as it acts as a shield from the outside, a screen to on look the scenes they go by “for miles inward” - the length of the journey relating to this also.

 Much like the rhythm of the poem, the language used throughout gives a sense of flow and calmness, and so when the “noise” of “the weddings,” it seems a disruption to the character and his journey, a reason for his change of attitude towards a time of celebration.

 The build-up this disruption is foreshadowed by the depletion of nature and the entry of more industrial scenery, such as the “acres of dismantled cars,” making the wedding itself seem related to this modern lifestyle in that Larkin shares the same disgruntled view towards it.

 Again, relating to many of Larkin’s poems in which he describes women, they play a predominant part in him noticing the ceremony, describing the “girls, in parodies of fashions,” “grinning” in awe. His focus on their wear makes the people featured in the poem seem of a lesser class, a more simple-minded group of people, perhaps due to or a cause for their endorsement in such activities.

 Very bluntly, the mothers are described as being “loud and fat,” and the “uncles shouting smut.” He uses these simplistic and cruel words in order to present an undignified set of morals here, as well as an endorsement of a modern way of living. Usually, Larkin presents his own self as being above people who follow certain ways of living and The Whitsun Weddings is no different, with the ceremony being used as a symbol of consumerism on a large scale.

 Eventually, the newly-married couples join the train, once “three-quarters empty,” a delightful amount for the relaxing journey it’s taken, now crowded and annoying. It’s a cheap mode of access for a wedding too, perhaps relating with the demeaning manner that Larkin looks onto lower-class people as whole.

 The action of moving away from the families and “frowning children” on a train, a long and warm journey for Larkin himself, can be seen as a symbolic gesture of people leaving their home-lives to pursue something bigger, with marriage being a gateway into different opportunities for people. He even begins to relate the wedding to a funeral, remembering how “the women shared the secret like a happy funeral,” giving the act of “moving on” a glum undertone of a passageway onto death.

 Cynical people tend to view weddings as ‘the end of happiness,’ and Larkin certainly presents his views in this way, mocking the “girls, gripping their handbags” staring “at a religious wounding,” a scornful way of presenting their sadness at not being married themselves, particularly after he describes it so unpleasantly. In a sense, he sees the world around him as predictable when it comes to modern-living. Unlike nature, which can be explored and experienced by all of the senses, Larkin sees weddings, for instance, as a fake ‘key’ to happiness.

 In the last two stanzas, Larkin’s language becomes more metaphorical and symbolic, representing his struggle to accept the route that humans have taken to respect what he views as pointless ceremonies. Passing by the many settings of adventure and prosper, the married couples “watched the landscape,” “and none thought of the others they would never meet,” Larkin juxtaposing the journey they take to his, making theirs seem pointless and a waste of time whilst his was a calming trip of comfort.

 The final stanza builds slowly, bringing Larkin’s view to a climactic end. The language used represents time passing, perhaps over centuries, in order to exaggerate the emptiness he feels life has, or human’s own insignificance. The train’s journey comes to an end, sadly using the words “done,” “blackened,” “slowed,” “swelled,” and “falling” to symbolise an upcoming end, all negative.

 “A sense of falling,” he says, “like an arrow shower.” It is as though he feels sympathetic for those married, and this display set before him has allowed him to explore the meaningless of living and doing these shamed activities. A life which he views a pointless, the train journey eventually being used as a symbol of being, a process of evolution and change, only to be terminated into “blackness,” explaining the inevitability of death, and therefore the pointlessness of consumerism.