This is a 2 page document that acts as a thorough essay plan and revision resource, produced by a student who achieved all A* at A level. It is split into an analysis of the poem itself, context, form, structure, language and ideas. (Hence touching upon all A0s assessed in the A level poetry exam.)
The title establishes the idea of
uncertainty and confusion as
memory is later described as
‘fleeting.’
Whatever happened
In this poem, Larkin examines the nature of memory. Despite the passage of time after a traumatic
event, the speaker seems unable to escape his own memory and it haunted by it.
Different themes:
Passage of time.
Memory.
Change.
Escapism.
Suffering and trauma.
Key poems to link to and why:
Metaphor used in this poem links to the depiction of photography in ‘Lines on a Young
Lady’s Photograph Album’, suggesting how memory becomes more indistinct over time.
Contextual links:
Larkin himself wrote in a letter that he kept the wording of the poem and its title ambiguous,
so that ‘whatever happened’ could be sexual as well as violent.
Some people, including Larkin’s biographer and critic, claim that the poem was written as a
consequence of Larkin’s relationship with Patsy Strang. She was described as married…
sexually adventurous… from a wealthy South African background.
Trauma and repression would have been relevant to 1950s society, following PTSD from war
for example. Society as a whole would be dealing with the same elements touched upon in
poem.
Key aspects of form and structure:
Larkin uses a regular rhyme scheme, which at first appears jaunty, jarring with the subject
matter, in a similar way to the idiomatic phrases that seem to ignore and brush over reality
and what is being discussed.
The rhyme scheme could also be reflective of the lingering nature of memory.
The length of a sonnet, though doesn’t fit sonnet form. This unorthodox construction of the
poem challenges convention and perhaps fits the message of the poem about the
unpredictability of memory etc.
Key methods and arguments of poem:
The poem opens with a reflection on the nature of memory following a traumatic incident:
‘At once whatever starts receding’- immediately event becomes the past- brain perhaps
trying to repress trauma?
‘with trousers ripped, light wallets, and lips bleeding.’- it is here that the speaker indicated
that they have been attacked, yet the event is over brushed over and reader does not get
more detail than this- even through poem speakers attempt to forget rather than dwell.
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