Quotes

• What does the title “Afternoon” suggest?

  The title has been made plural meaning it’s for all afternoons showing it’s monotony, it’s boring repetitiveness.

  Afternoon is a time of day at the peak of the day which could represent a stage in someones life could be a metaphor for settling down- 30s onwards
• ”Summer is fading:” What does this suggest?


  • A metaphor for the mothers getting older and losing their youth and beauty, here Larkin is trying to convey the bleak idea of the unstoppable passage of time.
  • Its a declarative sentence creating an observational and neutral tone.
• “ones and twos” what does this suggest?

  How it’s fading slowly and gradually but it’s inevitable.
• “from trees, bordering/the new recreation ground. “

  What could you pull out from this quote?

  The verb bordering has connotations of being trapped and controlled, which is exactly what the government in the 1960s, and the patriarchal societal views were doing to the women.

  The new recreation ground suggests the new houses being built by the government.

  The end stop line, suggests a finality to the women’s life and how they are only supposed to be mothers, nothing else.
• “hollows of afternoons” what does the adjective hollow suggest?


  because of how the afternoons are repetitive, it means they lack life and are meaningless as well as empty.
• “young mothers assemble” What does this quote suggest?


  How because they are young they should be free as well but they have already fallen into societies roles trapping them.

  "Assemble" the verb suggests how its a forced meeting and the women are not getting any joy from this encounter and how its tedious.

  Also how they have lost their identity and are now only identified by being called mothers really emphasises the 1960 gender role
• “Behind them at intervals stand husbands in skilled trades” What does “skilled” mean in this quote, why is ”husbands” used instead of fathers? and what does “at intervals“ suggest?


  -“skilled” suggests that the women aren’t skilled

  -”husband” is used instead of fathers which makes it significant as it shows they are hardly present in the children’s lives compared to the “mothers”

  -“at intervals” they are far away and want to leave simply moving further and further away at intervals
• What are the men immediately associated with?


  Work
• “An estateful of washing” shows how the women are immediately associated with washing and household chores shows how trapped they are by domesticity.
• “our wedding, lying/ Near the television “

  metaphor; the verb “lying“ shows how it’s been disregarded and forgotten. Showing how the couples love has been taken for granted and mellowed. However lying has a double meaning from the word "lie" suggesting that their love is false, meaningless, a lie.
• “The wind/ Is ruining their courting -places” Personification of wind shows how the women are hopeless as they can only watch as the wind destroys their courting places
• In stanza 2 it says “Behind them” and “before them,” which stresses how the woman are trapped no matter where they are outside or inside the home.
• (but the lovers are all in school,)

  The brackets make this line stand out blocking emphasises that the next generation is destined to do the same as their parents life is monotonous.
• “ unripe, acorns” what does this suggest about youth?


  The image of youth emphasises that the children aren’t ready yet to take over from their parents
• “expect to be taken home”

  this suggests that even the children are above the women and how the women are secondary in their own lives.
• “their beauty has thickened.” What does this line suggest? and what lang device?


  this metaphor emphasises Larkin sexist attitude as he criticises the women’s physical appearance of there, as they’ve gotten older or more fatter

  The end stop line also signifies the end of the women’s life as they have gotten older.
• In the last stanza, what do the end lines represent?

  The end stop lines create a sense of finality, how the mudanity of every day life is inescapable
• What are the last two lines of the poem ?

  “ something is pushing them to the side of their own lives.” this indicates how the women have become secondary in their own lives, and are no longer in control.
• "At swing and sandpit/ Setting free their children" This alliterative sentence conveys positive energy however this is only used to describe the children. The sibilance creates a sort of momentum on how the children are all going off to play together.

  The phrase "setting free" indicates how they were not free at home creating a sense of gloominess to the home.