*Philip Larkin, The Less Deceived (1955)
*Lines on a Young Lady’s Photograph Album
- ‘Lines’ - physical signs of aging, reflection of time’s passing
- ‘Photograph album’ - ability to capture a specific moment in time but also acts as a
reminder of aging and how time changes our appearance and identity
At last you yielded up the album, which
Once open, sent me distracted. All your ages
Matt and glossy on the thick black Pages!
Too much confectionery, too rich:
I choke on such nutritious images.
… time marker - opens in media res, in the middle of a conversation: feeling of eavesdropping
and intrusion; the speaker expresses a sense of excitement and anticipation of viewing the
photo album
… semantic field of consumption - highlighting the speaker’s excessive desire for the woman -
presents her as a commodity to be consumed
My swivel eye hungers from pose to pose —
In pigtails, clutching a reluctant cat;
Or furred yourself, a sweet girl-graduate;
Or lifting a heavy-headed rose
Beneath a trellis, or in a trilby-hat
… caesura between lines 7 and 8 - creates an effect of an endless list, overwhelment of
photographs; Larkin uses feminine imagery indicative of innocence and youth to exaggerate the
woman’s adolescence and hence the process of aging
(Faintly disturbing, that, in several ways) -
From every side you strike at my control,
Not least through those these disquieting chaps who loll
At ease about your earlier days:
Not quite your class, I'd say, dear, on the whole.
… a sense of overwhelment and stunned by the young woman’s beauty, manifests into jealousy
here against those who had the privilege of knowing the woman when she was younger. Larkin
gives speaker a sarcastic tone in final line - disapproval of men in photo
But o, photography! As no art is,
Faithful and disappointing! That records
Dull days as dull, and hold-it smiles as frauds,
And will not censor blemishes
Like washing-lines, and Hall's-Distemper boards,
*Lines on a Young Lady’s Photograph Album
- ‘Lines’ - physical signs of aging, reflection of time’s passing
- ‘Photograph album’ - ability to capture a specific moment in time but also acts as a
reminder of aging and how time changes our appearance and identity
At last you yielded up the album, which
Once open, sent me distracted. All your ages
Matt and glossy on the thick black Pages!
Too much confectionery, too rich:
I choke on such nutritious images.
… time marker - opens in media res, in the middle of a conversation: feeling of eavesdropping
and intrusion; the speaker expresses a sense of excitement and anticipation of viewing the
photo album
… semantic field of consumption - highlighting the speaker’s excessive desire for the woman -
presents her as a commodity to be consumed
My swivel eye hungers from pose to pose —
In pigtails, clutching a reluctant cat;
Or furred yourself, a sweet girl-graduate;
Or lifting a heavy-headed rose
Beneath a trellis, or in a trilby-hat
… caesura between lines 7 and 8 - creates an effect of an endless list, overwhelment of
photographs; Larkin uses feminine imagery indicative of innocence and youth to exaggerate the
woman’s adolescence and hence the process of aging
(Faintly disturbing, that, in several ways) -
From every side you strike at my control,
Not least through those these disquieting chaps who loll
At ease about your earlier days:
Not quite your class, I'd say, dear, on the whole.
… a sense of overwhelment and stunned by the young woman’s beauty, manifests into jealousy
here against those who had the privilege of knowing the woman when she was younger. Larkin
gives speaker a sarcastic tone in final line - disapproval of men in photo
But o, photography! As no art is,
Faithful and disappointing! That records
Dull days as dull, and hold-it smiles as frauds,
And will not censor blemishes
Like washing-lines, and Hall's-Distemper boards,
