Afternoons

• "Summer is fading"

  .metaphor

  .DOUBLE MEANING

  .one interpretation it that this suggests a new school year, a fresh start with new opportunities

  .however it also creates a solemn tone, implying a loss of youth, and ultimately the best years of your life before parenthood arrives
• "New recreation ground"

  .link to context-after WW2, flats had to be built quickly to supply for the working class

  .relating to how a children's playground has been affected by the passing of time
• "Setting free their children"

  .animalistic, shows larkins view on children as he never married or had children

  .implies what mothers wish for, freedom, spare time
• "Stand husbands in skilled trades"

  .expected of men to take the role of providing

  .stereotypical picture of working class family

  .suggests that's the passing of time has not changed gender roles
• "Our wedding, lying near the television"

  .suggests a loss of significance of their relationship

  .their relationship has been discarded and sacrificed over time for their children

  .implies how children have taken over their lives during the time they have been alive
• "The lovers are all in school"

  .implies the passing if time hasn't changed the fact that through the generations it's stayed the same

  .children have never has the chance to seek opportunities elsewhere

  .trapped by a working class life

  .also implies the young experice of romance before children ruin it as time comes
• "So intent on finding more unripe acorns"

  .this suggests it is expected if the children to find love in school

  .the passing of tike is uncontrollable, and so are the children's futures due to their upbringing
• "Their beauty has thickened"

  .as they get older, they become more like their mothers and fathers

  .can't control time, the children are powerless in their decisions for their future
• "Something is pushing them to the side of their own lives"

  .implies how adults priorities are sidelined

  .they are no longer in control

  ."something" implies that it is unknown, similarly to time as the mother's and fathers do not know when they will return to their young love