How can Philip Larkins poetry be used to address the...

The marginal or neglected can be seen to refer to individuals, a class or nation, to ideas that have been marginalised, to neglected forms such as poetry, and to the marginalised self. Philip Larkin is renowned for his use of the colloquial in his poetry, and he renews the importance of everyday language and words, that have been neglected and marginalised in forms of expression. His poems have the tone of the ordinary day. Through this use of language, he reflects on the loss of identity and to the neglected state of England due to modernisation and industrialisation. Poetry itself is a specialist form; however Larkins poetry can be seen as homely and less dramatic. He brought back poetry as a relevant and accessible medium, as it is†¦show more content†¦In the fourth stanza, he describes what he feels now (l.18), and the use of mass images suggests a loss of identity. For example the plural images of the crowd, kids (ll.19-21), More houses, more parking allowed, / More car avan sites, more pay (ll.22-3). England is becoming meaningless, having no individual identity, where greeds / And garbage are too thick-strewn (ll.51-2). The spectacled grins (l.25) represent the blandness of businessmen as they contemplate a commercial manoeuvre without taking account of the possible human consequences. Yet they are still mere grins, and not people. Modern industrial images are contrasted with the images of nature, such as the M1 cafà © (l.20) and concrete and tyres (l.49). Industry is marginalising the countryside, neglecting it. In the third stanza he expresses the fairly naà ¯ve belief that nature is stronger and more resilient than man and it will be able to recover. Later in the poem however, the strength of nature, how the earth will always respond (l.14), is trapped. The only parts that will be bricked in are the tourist parts (ll.39-40), yet the reason for the tourism is suggested to be because we will become the first slum of Europe (l.41). The marginalisation of the importance of the countryside is unnecessary, as the dales are