Afternoons

Working on your own, or in a group, consider how relevant the following contextual points relating to Philip Larkin’s poem, Afternoons are (i.e. how much knowledge of these facts would add to a reader’s appreciation of the poem.) Give each point a score out of 5 (5 being very important; 4 important; 3 fairly important; 2 not very important; 1 hardly important; 0 not important at all.) You should be able to make a case for your choices.

Afternoons

Summer is fading:
The leaves fall in ones and twos
From trees bordering
The new recreation ground.
In the hollows of afternoons
Young mothers assemble
At swing and sandpit
Setting free their children.


Behind them, at intervals,
Stand husbands in skilled trades,
An estateful of washing,
And the albums, lettered
Our Wedding, lying
Near the television:
Before them, the wind
Is ruining their courting-places


That are still courting-places
(But the lovers are all in school),
And their children, so intent on
Finding more unripe acorns,
Expect to be taken home.
Their beauty has thickened.
Something is pushing them
To the side of their own lives.


Philip Larkin

Ranking

Give each point a score out of 5 (5 being very important; 4 important; 3 fairly important; 2 not very important; 1 hardly important; 0 not important at all.) You should be able to make a case for your choices.

Questions

Although all these contextual points are interesting, and relevant to an extent, when you are reading Afternoons, you would not have time to write about them all, and still discuss the content and style of the poem. Below are the points you gave the highest score to.

Your Chosen Very Important Points

Use these to write the opening paragraph of a response to the following question: