Auden Critical Larkin: sorry for the tardiness.

In Auden’s essay, “Poetry as Memorable Speech,” he claims, in essence, that poetry is literally about anything.  From things we would consider memorable and monumental, “Birth, death, the Beatific Vision…” to things that we think of as insignificant, “The mark on the wall, the joke at luncheon, word games.”  Auden seems to believe that poetry can be found in literally any instance, and it’s our task to simply take those experiences and put words to them.  He also says that poetry and literature, by the time he wrote his essay, had split into two distinct streams with two separate audiences and purposes.  One was geared towards the upper-class, and contained “compensation and escape.”  The second type of writing was aimed at the lower class, offering “a religion and a drug.”  Auden claimed that “Art for Art’s sake” had been swept aside, into corners, as a simply complimentary affair.

Auden argues that poetry must, “Move our emotions, or excite our intellect, for only that which is moving is memorable.”  This would seem to mean that insignificant or common activities are not memorable.  Auden goes on to explain, conversely, that, “We shall do poetry a great disservice if we confine it only to the major experiences of life.”  Here it seems Auden contradicts himself quite completely, saying we must also remember the little things, which, he had stated, were not memorable before. 

I think Larkin’s poem, “This Be the Verse,” offers a really brilliant example of the idea of remembering something important, claiming, “They fuck you up, your mum and dad.  They may not mean to, but they do.”  This offers a really bitter tone, harsh, accusatory.  This blames the parents, for messing up the kid’s life, and shows the author reflecting on his experiences with his own parents.  It seems to be placing blame for an important event.  The tone shifts, turning a little more reflective in the second stanza with, “But they were fucked up in their turn, by fools in old-style hats and coats.”  This shows the author as pensive, more understanding, reflecting on major events in his parents’ lives as congruent with those in his.  There is yet another tonal shift in stanza three, becoming a bit more cautionary, and a hint wry, when the author warns, “Get out as early as you can, and don’t have any kids yourself.”  Larkin seems a bit subtler than Auden calls for, but I think he draws on specific details just enough to nail down a gestural feeling that major events were a factor.

I also feel that Larkin does an excellent job with drawing on insignificant or common activities, for example, in “The Whitsun Weddings.”  Larkin calls on details that are very specific, but specific only to non-major events.  The weddings are all insignificant to the speaker, so it would seem they’d be unworthy of memory.  However, Larkin pulls things like, “While girls, gripping their handbags tighter, stared,” out as minor details in a common event.  I think in this poem Larkin captures a really nice mixture of the requirements set by Auden, and I personally think that the casual, telling-it-to-a-friend attitude Larkin offers in this poem, as he seems to fondly recall the details of a would-be lackadaisical observance while on a train, makes it a lot more relatable to the reader.