How is the title Next, Please significant?
The clipped nature of the title conveys our desire to quickly move past the present and onto the future, which we see as filled with promise and wonder.
What different views might we consider in Next, Please?
- Larkin’s view is separate to society in welcoming death/isolation, considering the only thing next to be death.
- Society’s views/expectations, constantly expecting next things rather than appreciating the present.
What main technique does Next, Please use? Why?
- Extended metaphor of a boat to represent the idea of opportunities coming and going.
‘Always too eager for the future, we
Pick up bad habits of expectancy’
- Mocks the way society deceives itself about the future, and lose focus on the present. Distracted by waiting/dwelling on future.
‘Something is always approaching’
- Sense of ambiguity - fool ourselves into believing something significant might happen in the future. Future is imprecise.
‘Till then, we say’
- Lose focus/agency in the present whilst waiting for a future that never comes - mundanity of life.
‘Sparkling armada of promises draw near’
- Metaphor of future as a fleet of ships - opportunities that come and go.
‘How slow they are! And how much time they waste, Refusing to make haste!’
- Hyperbole and Exclamatives - childish impatience and excitement to mock the attitude of society, considering the future to be glorious and exhilarating.
- Fail to consider the present, and the reality of the future - death.
‘wretched stalks of disappointment’
- Metaphor. Left clinging onto dead, unfulfilled dreams - disappointment and setbacks.
‘leaning with brasswork prinked, Each rope distinct, Flagged, and the figurehead wit golden tits’
- Bathos. Elaborate and elevated image of the future and our expectations for it is reduced to the crude reality of life as trivial and mundane.
‘No sooner present than it turns to past’
- Opportunities/possibilities pass us - foolish of our hopes for unachievable dreams.
‘waiting so devoutly and so long.
But we are wrong’
- End stop separates foolish illusions of society from reality, and emphasises volta.
- Monosyllabic language - blunt and unavoidable truth.
‘Only one ship is seeking us, a black-
Sailed unfamiliar’
- Refers to death via colour imagery. Contrasts ‘golden tits’ of how we falsely view life, without consideration of death in our futures.
- ‘Unfamiliar’ - we fail to think / truly accept death. Distract ourselves with what is coming next to avoid facing the bleak reality that our lives are finite / death is in the distance, and so instead focus upon these future opportunities.
‘A huge and birdless silence.’
- Emphasised via caesura. After death, there is nothing, death is an absolute and unavoidable end to all life.
Rhyme Scheme of Next, Please:
- Rhyming couplets - upbeat, childlike tone to suggest society’s naivety and immaturity.
What is Bathos?
An abrupt change of tone, perhaps for a comedic effect.
