Many of Philip Larkin’s poems also focus on the concept of love, as the poem “Talking in Bed”, written in 1964, which is a story about a failing relationship between two people isolated from each other and who find it difficult to communicate. The first thing I noticed about this poem was the title “Talking in Bed”, suggesting that the closeness of being together in the bed (a place of intimacy) should make it easy to talk “Talking in bed ought to be easiest” (line 1). However, this couple seems to have trouble communicating “Lying together there goes far back” (line 2), as they do not say a word to each other. Only what remains is an emblem “An emblem of two people being honest” (line 3) – which signifies cruel present reality. This suggests the title and the whole poem is ironic. The word lying “Lying together there goes back so far” (line 2) is ambiguous as it could mean both “sleeping/lying in bed together” or “telling lies over a period of time”. Larkin obviously does not believe that love could last forever and can be a disappointment.
The sense of broken communication and isolation is well displayed through the structure and form of the poem. The poem consists of twelve lines, predominantly in the iambic pentameter, divided into three tercets, rhyming ABA CAC DCD, and a final tercet rhyming EEE, what portray the absence of continuity and the broken-up nature of the couple's discourse.
The second stanza opens with the line - containing alliteration - “Yet more and more time passes silently” (line 4) – which gives us a sense of human stagnation in contrast with nature “Outside, the wind’s incomplete unrest / Builds and disperses clouds about the sky” (line 5,6). It could be that the couple in this poem has been in a relationship for a long time or possibly be married; but in contrary - while their time’s passing in silence – the wind is active all the time. Larkin uses nature to describe what is happening outside - while the outside world continues as normal – the inside world remains in its isolation. Moreover, Larkin shows contempt and dislike for modern life by touching the problematic values of human communication. Nowadays, communicating with a person is something many people could possibly relate to, as it is a problem often seen in every day life.
As in second stanza Larkin also uses imagery of the nature and environment at the beginning of third stanza “And dark towns heap up on the horizon” (line 7), but this time the focus is not on natural objects but rather on man-made aspects of the environment. As seen in line 7 the environment, suggested by dark towns, does not bring satisfactory fulfilments in human expectations. Human involvement is even more obvious in the last two lines of third stanza “None of this cares for us. Nothing shows why / At this unique distance from isolation” (line 8,9). Larkin emphasises the desperation of situation between these two people gathered in one place where they could truly be themselves, but they are at a loss.
In fourth stanza “It becomes still more difficult to find / Words at once true and kind” (line 10,11) as well as in the third stanza “…Nothing shows why / At this unique distance from isolation” (line 9) there is enjambment – the breaking of a syntactic unit by the end of a line, which stresses alienation, failure and isolation.
As Larkin suggests, “It becomes more difficult to find / Words once true and kind” (line 10,11), it could be difficult for these two people to express verbally how they feel or it could be also possible that they spoke about the relationship, which has hurt them emotionally and they created the isolation, although words kind and true both relate with human language in positive manner. The double negative not + un “Or not untrue and not unkind” (line 12) leaves the reader ambiguous feeling of unfulfilled desire. Very similar situation is in line 9 “At this unique distance from isolation”, suggesting that someone can be distanced from isolation and ironically very close at the same time.
Larkin’s poem “Talking in bed” enables us to relate to possible common experiences in our own lives and provoke us to think about both – the gap between expectations and reality – and irony of love in modern world. However, an irony, one of the dominant features in this poem, gives us the opportunity to create our own perception of love. I think Larkin believed that love is a positive thing, but we all know that reality makes nothing simple and often confront us with painful disappointment.
Works cited and consulted
Larkin, Philip. “Talking in Bed”. 20th Century English Poetry (ed. V. Kennedy). 2007. University of Maribor. Faculty of Arts.
Duczeminski, Mattlock. Associated content. 17 November 2006. An Explication of “Talking in Bed”. 8 January 2009.
<http://www.associatedcontent.
“Intimate relationship”. Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. 8 January 2009.
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“Love”. Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. 8 January 2009.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
“Philip Larkin”. Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. 8 January 2009.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
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