Ambulances by Philip Larkin ( Modern Literature)

 

Modern Poetry by Famous Modern Poet:

Ambulances by Philip Larkin

Summary & Critical Analysis:

·       Stanza 1: Closed like. . . . are visited.

Philip Larkin says that ambulance is a closed little box like confessional. The very first simile he used for ambulances is a sacred thing i.e. closed like confessionals.   Then he uses the word thread because ambulances are able to move into the narrow lanes of a city just like the thread can move anywhere. There is no place that is out of reach from these ambulances. They can reach every corner, every place in the city.

Noise is a sign of life in poetry and noon, the middle of the day, when life is at its full bloom, death comes. Ambulances reach loud noons, here noons mean the time when life activity is at its peak. When an ambulance would pass, I people would look at it but ambulance doesn’t  give back any of the glances. Here ambulances are personified. They are aware that people are looking but they pass indifferently. Light shiny grey color tells you that there must be something written like the name of person, his address, hospital’s name etc. Then the poet tells that ambulances stop by at any place. This is the characteristic of death. Like death, ambulances can reach every street, house and corner etc. So ambulance here is a metaphor for death.

In Larkin’s poetry, there is no glorification of death. Ambulances are claustrophobic like confessional boxes where you admit your sins. Death brings you all your sins back to your mind and you have to confess that you have been a sinner. When death appears, it is least concerned with your problems, desires and is remote from your emotional and psychological life. Simply every street is visited by ambulances and there is no place where death cannot reach.

·       Stanza 2: Then children. . . . and stowed.

In the second stanza poet has shown us a very common scene that every person has seen. Children are playing on steps or road and women are coming from the shops. It is a very typical modernist feature where everyday life is in its full dreariness. where everyday life is in its full dreariness. There is no nightingale singing, no flowers etc. but very normal activities are discussed. This is very modern about city life that everyone from us does ordinary tasks. Children are playing, women are coming from shops and the smell of different dinners coming. Different dinners image tells you about the diversity in city life. Everyone has their own taste in life.

In the first three lines we see normal life activities and then in the next three lines there is something different. A wild white face is the face of death, the face of dying person. He has fear, whiteness and lifelessness on his face. Red stretcher blanket is put on the dead body and then he is loaded in the ambulance like the luggage. This tells you about the uselessness of that person after his death. He becomes something that has been put away and stored somewhere. The moment life gets out of you, you become a burden. Here the worthlessness of human life is enhanced. The moment you are dead, you lose every significant thing about you and then you are taken away by an ambulance like a redundant thing (something useless or worthless).

·       Stanza 3: And sense. . . . own distress;

You sense, or ambulance sense or the people who look around they sense, not sure, the poet is talking about the onlookers, ambulances or death. Whosoever is sensing, he says that whatever we are doing, there is no significant meaning in our daily life activities. We are going nowhere and this is typical modern despair. Death resolves the dilemma of human life which is worthless and directionless. Death makes us whole for a second. Even death becomes meaningless if you believe in life hereafter. Death is permanent, blank and true and there is no escape from it. It will always be there in permanence.

The poet further says that when the dead body is taken away, the onlookers just say two words “ poor soul”.  Their own distress means the ever present consciousness of death that they will also die sooner or later. They see a dead body going, they worry about their own distress and whisper ‘poor soul’. If we notice we would realize that the prayer for dead person is missing here. How people are preoccupied with their own distress. Nobody thinks about the poor soul. This is the dreariness of modern life that people are so preoccupied with their petty problems, there is hardly any sense of community or sense of partnership association. Everyone is a prisoner of one’s own distress. That’s what modern man has become. This is the dreariness of modern life, the despair, poet talks about very much.

·       Stanza 4: For borne away. . . . fashions, there.

All things in which we are occupied our whole life like family, fashions, everything that we think is meaningful or making sense of our life, comes to a sudden shut. Even if we are in loss, even if we are occupied by family or fashions, everything will eventually come to an end.

·       Stanza 5: At last begin . . . . all we are.

This is our prison, modern man’s prison and we remain occupied in this. There is no sublimity about it. This prison began to loosen, began to go away in death. Only death seems to be a salvation and freedom here. The last scene, when ambulance goes away, there is no love, exchange of vows, loving messages, love touch etc. Everything just remains behind that person. The room poet is talking about in the last stanza can be a grave, hospital’s cold room etc. Traffic always gives a way to these ambulances to let go by. This is the only courtesy society provides. The ambulance is then going far and only the grave is left to come. Ambulance is going so far that there comes a distance between the onlookers and the ambulance. Gradually the sound also becomes dull. This is what we are. We live life playing, cooking, dancing, shopping etc. then this is what happens to all of us. Our death arrives and we’re left with no choice other than meeting our final destiny.