The word Aubade, according to Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, represents the farewell parting of two lovers. This meaning, in contrast with the Horation Ode “Aubade” by Philip Larkin (1922-85), puzzles the reader after reading a devastating introduction to the work found in the first stanza. The speaker appears to have a worthless, wasted life ongoing, simply because he chooses to allow the fear of death control his happiness while living. At a closer look, it is not verily the fear of death itself that frightens our character so copiously, but the fear of what lies beyond death. This stems an absence of the belief in the existence of a God or post-life “life after death.” The speaker indulges himself in that “This is a special way of being afraid” (Larkin, Page 313, Line 21), which possesses vague meaning—the only significance in the way that this character wishes to fear lies within the shear possibility of truth in it. If something is absurd enough to be discarded as false, the fear disperses. The lack of faith born from existentialist ideas (or possibly this reversed) only further deepens such a man’s anxiety, encouraging disbelief over things not seen. This argument continues with the speaker’s reference to past religious establishments who preached the notion, “No rational being/ Can fear a thing it will not feel” (313, Lines 25-26), reveals the true nature of his anxieties. In other words, the church discoursed that people should not be afraid of death, or more so what lies beyond death, because such persons will have no mortal feeling or pain. Still yet, that is the cause of apprehension for our speaker. The mere inability to feel anything after a life fully lived seems incomprehensible and nonsensical. Yes, he argues, the idea that there will be no pain is a comforting and attractive idea, though furthermore deceiving. Larkin provides the audience, moreover, with a visual of death as a “small unfocused blur, a standing chill” (313, Line 32), enhancing the uncertainty of the situation. This metaphor, like many, are found in the work supporting the idea of death manifested—it is a very real, very frightening concept that all the living must grasp. Death is also visualized as an “anaesthetic from which none come round” (313, Line 30), or a sleep from which none awaken. It is embodied through the figure of a thought; forever lingering on the mind of the living—because of this, his life is drowned in perpetual worry. The man becomes angry with the knowledge that death will someday come his way, waking every morning with the reminder that death is unresting, “a whole day nearer now” (312, Line 5). Having courage, according to Larkin, betrays people into serenity, which is argued as a crime being committed against them. “Being brave/ Lets no one off the grave” (313, Lines 38-39). Finally, whining does no good. The poem is concluded with a reflecting hopelessness for the future; a deceptive dispute in which the character’s inability to accept death is its foundation.
The poem itself is filled with symbolism and other literary schemes which support the themes of hopelessness and the inability to accept one’s own demise. Again reaching the conclusion that the title “Aubade” was placed in reference to a farewell, the reader would suppose the separation of the two lovers (in essence) is the separation of life and man/soul. From the beginning, the rhyme scheme may be noted as ‘ababccdeed,’ found commonly in Odes. This particular poem, however, is a form of lyric poetry discussing a personal matter reflectively expressed in five stanzas of ten verses. There are normally a varying number of stanzas, and each stanza has the same metre and rhyme scheme. The end-stopping and end rhyming quality leaves an impression of continual motion within the poem, providing support to the idea of “eternity.” “Last Syllable Rhyme” may also be noted in the first stanza at use with the words “die” (312, Line 7) and “horrify” (312, Line 10). Personification leaves a mark on the poem, as well; “the curtain edges will grow light” (312, Line 3) and “unresting death” (312, Line 5) are both good examples of this literary technique used in Larkin’s Ode, but yet even more menacing uses target the last stanza. “Meanwhile telephones crouch, getting ready to ring/In locked-up offices” (313, Lines 45-46) provides evidence of personification paired with harsh diction, leaving an impression of telephones acting as predators do, awaiting prey. This concept, of course, can be related to death waiting to consume life—collect souls of the living.
“That vast moth-eaten musical brocade/Created to pretend we never die” (313, Lines 23-24), “to hold and horrify” (312, Line 10), “In furnace-fear” (313, Line 36), “And specious stuff that says” (313, Line 25), etc. Alliteration keeps the suspenseful pace constant, found in all parts of the work. Consonance, too, adds to this attribute; some examples include, “Flashes afresh” (312, Line 10) and “so it stays just on the edge of vision, /A small unfocused blur, a standing chill /That slows each impulse down to indecision” (313, Lines 31-33) in stanza four for which the constant focus is on ‘s’ sounds. Similes such as “It stands plain as a wardrobe” (313, Line 42), “The sky is white as clay” (313, Line 48), and “Postmen like doctors” (313, Line 50) are used to compare and further involve the audience with the story—allowing them to make their own connections to themes within the text. Repetition, naturally, puts emphasis on a specific topic or theme, and is found in stanzas one and three, an example being “This is what we fear—no sight, no sound, /No touch or taste or smell, nothing to think with, /Nothing to love or link with” (313, Lines 27-29). Repetition increases the tension in the mood of the work and reinforces the uncertainty the speaker is attempting to convey. In disparity, symbolism is one of the most important features in this poem, as well as in any. “The sky is white . . . with no sun . . . /Postmen like doctors go from house to house” (313, Lines 48 and 49). The absence of a sun may be described also as the absence of hope, any man’s shining star. As the whole poem exists during the night (darkness) two hours before dawn, when the light appears, life awakens. When Larkin writes “what we know . . . /we can’t escape . . . one side will have to go” (313, Lines 42-44), although this line confused the reader, one can infer that the two sides the author speaks of would be the contrasting inability to accept death versus the inability to escape it. The conflicted must choose to accept the end of his life as it approaches in the future, or deny natural/divine will. Both sides weigh heavily on his mind, always a thought in the back of his head. Finally, what the reader believes to be the most important symbol within this work of poetry, the last line (“Postmen like doctors . . .”) conveys the eternal theme that all living creatures on earth will eventually die. Similar to a postman delivering mail, soon enough this aspect can be related to a doctor delivering people in each house to the grave at the appropriate time of death, since this is to be the fate of most likely all in such an area. “Slowly light strengthens, and the room takes shape” (313, Line 41). The poem is an interesting one depicting much imagery not only in the beginning with descriptions of the bedroom in which the main speaker sleeps at night, but also in the last few stanzas describing death standing as a “wardrobe,” etc. in the darkness. It is a melancholy, expressive testimony of fear, embodied in the most realistic of ways.
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