Whatever Larkin’s subject matter, cynicism is inescapable in his poetry.

How far do you

agree with this assertion?

There is no doubt that we live in an imperfect world, and Larkin is certainly no stranger to this.
His work is arguably characterised by his cynical and blunt outlook on life. This view is reflected
strongly throughout the body of his work, and can bury itself even into its language and form.
Although there is a specious argument that it is possible to look through the cynicism and find
genuine appreciation of beauty and even love in Larkin’s poetry, beneath it all is a deeply rooted
cynical worldview that Larkin holds as a core trait of his personality, and can always be found.
However, by no means does this hamper but rather enhance the appeal of his work.

One could argue that Larkin’s cynicism can be undercut by hope and promise for the future. In
his poem ‘First Sight’, Larkin’s bleak imagery in the first stanza gives way after the volta to a much
more optimistic tone. Before the volta, a semantic field associated with winter is created using
diction such as ‘snow’ and ‘clouds’, both also creating an association with whiteness. The turn of the
volta is symbolic of the turn of the seasons, and ‘waiting’ for the lambs is ‘Earth’s immeasurable
surprise’: spring. The white will give way to colour and the bleakness will give way to liveliness. One
could argue that Larkin uses this imagery to create a sense of hope behind the gloom that is there
even if we can ‘not grasp it’. This suggestion of hope is mirrored elsewhere in his work, such as in ‘An
Arundel Tomb’. The speaker’s final line is that the effigy proves ‘our almost-instinct almost true:
what will survive of us is love’. The ‘stone fidelity’ of the lovers has been marked into history as an
emblem of love surviving beyond death. Larkin’s use of the word ‘instinct’ implies a sense of deep
rooted knowledge of the statement’s truth. One could suggest that this is somewhat undercut by his
use of ‘almost’, however the image of an ‘almost-instinct’ emphasises the strength that the lovers’
effigy has to convince the speaker that love does in fact survive and overcomes any inferred doubt.

Another recurrent theme in Larkin’s poetry is beauty, and it is used by Larkin to provide relief
from and balance out the heavy overtones of pessimism and sardonicism. In ‘Afternoons’, the
speaker describes young and old beauty. The ‘unripe acorns’ the children collect could be a
metaphor for themselves; eventually growing into a beautiful and strong oak tree. The existing
beauty of the mothers, in contrast, ‘has thickened’. This could be taken to mean that their
experiences in life have intensified their beauty and that their beauty will never fade. Larkin also
sees women as otherworldly, describing them (and love) as ‘separate and unearthly’ in ‘The Large
Cool Store’. Since Larkin is so disparaging about the earth, perhaps his descriptions of the beauty of
women and love as ‘unearthly’ implies that they are untouchable by his negativity, and thereby
women provide an escape from his cynicism. The speaker describes the small absurdity that it is to
‘suppose they share the world, to think their sort is matched by something in it’. It is possible that
the match the speaker refers to is the pairings of marriage and love between men and women. This
would suggest that the absurdity is in fact that women, these unearthly, beautiful creatures, are
matched by men who do not and cannot understand them in the way that the speaker cannot. This
genuine admiration and even reverence for women is much opposed to the view of Larkin as a cynic,
and much less a misogynist.

However, more commonly exhibited in Larkin’s work is his tendency to see things that are
generally accepted to be emotionally meaningful as disingenuous. In British culture, weddings are
typically associated with happiness and celebrations of commitment and love. In ‘The Whitsun
Weddings’, Larkin’s speaker picks this view apart. He describes the brides as being dressed in
‘parodies of fashion’ and remains in very much a superficial and physical description rather than
looking at the emotional aspects of a wedding, despite the emotional value being the entire premise
for the celebration. In fact, there is no mention of any emotion in the entire stanza, which could be
indicative of a belief that weddings are only about the physical: grandiose shows of self-promotion,
and in fact the dress ‘parodies’ are synecdochical for the whole wedding being a parody of true love.
The further description of the brides supports this, as they are described as ‘grinning and pomaded’.
Larkin’s choice of ‘grinning’, as opposed to smiling, presents the reader with an image of happiness
that is far more conceited and much less genuine than the happiness at a wedding should be. This is
immediately reinforced by the introduction of the word ‘pomaded’. Whilst it simply means oiled, the
carefully selected sound ‘pom’ encourages the reader to connect the phrase with the word
‘pompous’, which encapsulates the speaker’s portrayal of the wedding perfectly. The transformation
between sincerity and superficiality is repeated in ‘An Arundel Tomb’. It is described how the lovers
‘hardly meant’ the ‘stone fidelity’ that they are known for, perhaps referencing that the gesture of
holding hands from which the ‘fidelity’ idea comes, was in fact a modification made by a renovator
three centuries after it was built. ‘The endless altered people’ that come are simply ‘washing at their
identity’, as with each new theory as to the meaning of the effigy, the true one becomes more
polluted. Eventually the intended meaning is so clouded that it is meaningless, and the sculpture
itself loses its meaning and becomes something superficial and trivial.

Cynicism in Larkin’s work also stems from his loneliness and isolation. In ‘First Sight’, the
speaker uses the assonance of ‘unwelcome’ and ‘sunless’ to suggest negativity through the prefix
‘un’. It is emblematic of a lack of positivity and a lack of hope, reinforcing the images of bleakness
and loneliness. A single past tense verb in the phrase ‘if they knew’, as opposed to the rest of the
poem in the present suggests that the lambs may never come to know; most likely because they
won’t live long enough. In opposition to what was earlier posed, what they can ‘not grasp even if
they knew’ is in fact their impending deaths, not spring. Hence, Larkin relates lambs, representative
of birth and life, to death. A semantic field in ‘Afternoons’ relating to emptiness and endings is
created in the first stanza using words such as ‘fading’, ‘fall’, and ‘hollow’. Larkin’s speaker projects
his own emotions onto the world around him, making it seem much more disagreeable than it’s
generally accepted to be. Even the leaves ‘fall in ones and twos’, symbolic of single people and
couples. The use of falling leaves proposes that whether people are on their own or in a couple,
everyone’s fate is the same. Everybody will die and slowly be forgotten, and others will come along
to replace them as part of the recurring cycle of nature, just like leaves on a tree. Thus, just through
use of numbers, Larkin offers the reader a very cynical proposition and exemplifies the intricate
control of language in his poems to create subtle but constantly present, and thus inescapable,
undertones of cynicism.

Larkin’s cynicism is very prominent towards anything he sees as being motivated by egotism or
vanity. In ‘The Large Cool Store’, Larkin’s speaker describes women as ‘synthetic’, a description
which implies shallowness and inauthenticity. The setting of a clothes shop emphasises this
superficiality as clothes are something very cosmetic. It could be argued that there are misogynistic
undertones to this representation as synthetic materials are often colloquially referred to as ‘man-
made’, implying that women are dependent upon men, and even made from them as in the story of
Adam and Eve. This artificiality is mirrored in ‘The Whitsun Weddings’ when he identifies the girls by
their ‘perms, nylon gloves and jewellery-substitutes’, all associated with being fake or synthetic,
which also serves to emphasise Larkin’s cynicism in his view of weddings as also fake. A parallel can
be drawn between ‘The Large Cool Store’ and ‘The Whitsun Weddings’ by how Larkin identifies
women through colours. ‘Lemon, sapphire, moss-green, rose’ and ‘lemons, mauves and olive ochres’
respectively could be illustrative of a connection between how he views women and colours;
something pretty to look at, but with no depth of emotion or other real purpose. The lack of
emotional depth causes Larkin’s speakers to believe women are preoccupied with the shallow, and
write them off as conceited and vain. However, this view contradicts the evaluation of women as
exempt from Larkin’s cynicism, showing that, no matter how deep it lies, it is unavoidable. Perhaps
some of Larkin’s cynicism is unintentional, hence causing the conflicting occurrences of cynicism and
optimism within poems.

The contempt expressed in Larkin’s poetry could in fact be a manifestation of his cynicism, as
he believes he is exempt to some of the negative traits that cause his dismissal and lack of respect
for others. In ‘Faith Healing’, Larkin describes the attendees ‘as if a dumb and idiot child within them
still survives’. This scathing criticism is directed towards those who are likely desperate and very
vulnerable. Perhaps he feels his ability to observe the faith healing as spurious, whilst others cannot,
makes him superior. However, the second meaning of dumb as unable to speak indicates the lack of
power and the inability to make their voice heard and get help that the attendees experience,
driving them to such desperate measures. In that way, Larkin softens his contempt by using his voice
to speak out for the voiceless. Despite this, the cynicism still remains. The healer ‘exiles’ his patients
‘like losing thoughts’, something associated with little care or preoccupation. Thoughts that are
forgotten as opposed to committed to memory are the ones we deem to have no value, thus
suggesting the healer sees his patients as worthless. The speaker therefore refuses to see the healer
as motivated by anything virtuous and neglects any genuine desire to help that the healer may or
may not possess. Larkin’s exemption of himself from what he is cynical about in others occurs again
in ‘Afternoons’. Larkin’s speaker describes ‘albums, lettered our wedding, lying near the television’.
Larkin’s choice of the word ‘lying’ carries the insinuation of untruth, implying that even the most
mundane of things in a marriage are built on a foundation of lies. ‘The wind’ ruining ‘their courting
places’ suggests that the wind is slowly destroying the places on which the lies were built, eventually
leading to the inevitable collapse of the foundation and therefore the marriage, a very pessimistic
and cynical assumption. Cynics enjoy seeing the flaws in the established systems and rejecting them,
and as a result feel contempt towards those who don’t; therefore Larkin’s contemptuous attitude is
just another demonstration of his cynicism.

Larkin’s harsh cynicism could arise from an attempt to diminish his feelings of inadequacy. In
‘The Whitsun Weddings’, one could argue Larkin’s feelings of inadequacy run so deep as to be buried
within his language. He describes ‘acres of dismantled cars’, however the sounds provide more
meaning to the poem than the words themselves in this case. The sounds of ‘ache’ and ‘man’ echo
the speaker’s anguish at being so ordinary and mediocre. He describes how ‘the smell of grass
displaced the reek of buttoned carriage cloth’, thereby placing nature and man at war with each
other, and man losing. This reinforces the repeated theme of man as being weak. Nowhere are
Larkin’s feelings of inadequacy stronger than in his relationship with women. His speaker talks about
how he ‘could talk to’ the ‘friend in specs’ and she’s the one he ‘took out’ in his poem ‘Wild Oats’,
even though the friend in specs is an afterthought to the ‘bosomy English rose’. This is seen by the
order in which Larkin places the two girls and how she is just ‘the friend’, no more than an
appendage to the ‘English rose’. The colour ‘rose’ is also used in ‘The Large Cool Store’ to represent
femininity. However, Larkin appears to be intimidated by her beauty and sees her as unattainable.
Despite his initial dismissal of the friend, she begins to embody something attractive to the insecure
speaker: sexual accessibility. The bleak and very limited piece of description of the friend as wearing
‘specs’ shows his lack of interest, let alone affection, for her. Larkin is unable to let go of ‘bosomy
rose’, as shown by the fact that some ‘twenty years’ on, there are ‘still two snaps’ of her in his
wallet. He blames her for the death of his relationships, saying they’re his ‘unlucky charms, perhaps’.
This could be Larkin blaming the woman for his failure in love, however he undermines this with the
final ‘perhaps’. Together with the irony of Larkin suggesting magical powers given the intense
cynicism throughout the poem, the dichotomy of the uncertain and yet decisive last word allows this
specious explanation to collapse and reveal the true reason for his failure in love: much more deeply
rooted, profound shortcomings in his character. Larkin’s cynicism and nonchalant dismissal of his
romantic failure serve therefore to diminish his feelings of inadequacy.

A key feature in which Larkin’s cynicism is found is his humour. When combined with his
feelings of inadequacy, a self-deprecating humour is formed that is central to ‘A Study of Reading
Habits’. The speaker mocks their younger self, saying ‘the women I clubbed with sex! I broke them
up like meringues’. The sheer oddness of this statement is humorous in itself, but combined with the
previous image of vampires (‘me and my cloak and fangs’), it evokes an image of a younger Larkin,
‘nose’ constantly ‘in a book’, trying to fit in with the more mature peers and seeming hilariously out
of place. ‘Take One Home for the Kiddies’ may be Larkin’s most satirical poem in the ‘Whitsun
Weddings’ anthology. It begins as a pessimistic and almost pitying observation of the ‘shallow straw’
and horrible conditions in which the pets live. The word ‘shallow’ is symbolic of how it is also shallow
to keep pets like a ‘living toy’. However, the poem quickly transforms from pity to cynicism. The
speed with which this volta occurs echoes the speed with which the novelty ‘wears off’ and the
children are ‘playing funerals’, creating humour through no more than a cynical observation.
Thereby, Larkin uses his cynicism in a jocular manner to create a more light-hearted tone, whilst
accepting the inescapability of the cynicism itself.

Whilst cynicism is omnipresent in Larkin’s work, however deeply disguised, it is the disparaging
worldview produced by his cynical nature that allows for the sharp, insightful and humorous
observations that form a large part of the appeal of his work. In the words of George Bernard Shaw,
‘the power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who don’t have it’. The
beautifully acerbic study of life that ‘The Whitsun Weddings’ anthology provides is refreshing against
a backdrop of centuries of saccharine poetry, and all as a result of Larkin’s ubiquitous cynicism. His
work could not be further from saccharine; using his characteristic cynicism, he creates a division
between how things appear to be on the surface and their true nature, settling upon a dark and yet
somehow heart-warming acceptance of the world’s imperfections.