Poetry Of Departures

The act of running away from home is an act that every child considers. As an adult, though, the hope and majesty of the idea can start to fade. In Philip Larkin’s “Poetry of Departures”, the narrator speaks of someone who had considered leaving home. Larkin develops two ways of living in his poem, one where the character spontaneously abandons his life and walks out, and the other being the mundane life at home. Larkin’s attitude toward the two ways of living is shown through his diction, progressing and evolving throughout the piece. Initially his tone is disdainful and contemptuous toward the life of staying at home, but in the end, changes to an impartial and realistic attitude. His initial tone when describing the spontaneous life is …show more content…
Larkin’s diction here really reveals his initial attitude toward this person, flat out saying he approves the “audacious, purifying, elemental move”. All three words he uses here have positive connotations that imply this way of life is superior. The word audacious has synonyms such as bold, courageous and even heroic. Describing the person that lives this way of life as bold, courageous and heroic does not only suggest a positive attitude, but also a sense of admiration. Who doesn’t like a bold hero? The second word, “purifying” Larkin uses is quite straightforward. Purity is genuine, purity is clean. Most people strive for purity, such as churchgoers who worship god. The whole point of being pure in the mortal life is so that you can go to heaven. Larkin’s clever wording here describes a bold courageous hero who is going to heaven, a type of person that no one can disagree with. The last word “elemental” gives the reader a sense that although the person who lives this life is an amazing, bold and pure hero, he/ she is also just a normal person. Elemental in this sense means that this person is just as primary and basic as any other human being, derived from the same fundamentals as everyone else. What makes them different, though, is that they choose to live the spontaneous way of life, therefore making them something …show more content…
“They are right, I think”, he writes. The notion of “I think” really stands out in this section, as almost the beginnings of skepticism about the spontaneous way of life. Larkin quickly tries to nip this skepticism in the bud by criticizing the counterpart to the spontaneous life, the mundane life of staying at home. After his “I think”, Larkin gets the reader back on track with a “we”. “We all hate home”, he says. He grabs the reader's open mind back and terminates any lingering skepticism in both the reader’s mind and his own. He diction here is obvious disdain, using words like “hate” and “detest”. It’s worth mentioning that this is also repetition. Although this repetition only happens twice, it is enough to really hook the opinion of the reader. The things Larkin describes that he hates are all worded carefully. First, he uses the oxymoron of the “specially-chosen junk”. No matter what, it’s still junk, therefore carrying negative connotations. He then speaks of positive things such as his “good books” and “perfect order”. His attitude towards these traditionally positive things is quite negative, though. He describes them as they are the kind of materialistic things that come with the mundane life, “good” things that are not necessarily essential to a good life itself. His obvious negative attitude towards the life at home is clear here, with the slight foreshadowing with the skeptic “I