Sunny Prestatyn (Philip Larkin) - Poetry Analysis

Come to Sunny Prestatyn

Laughed the girl on the poster,

Kneeling up on the sand

In tautened white satin.

Behind her, a hunk of coast, a

Hotel with palms

Seemed to expand from her thighs and

Spread breast-lifting arms.

She was slapped up one day in March.

A couple of weeks, and her face

Was snaggle-toothed and boss-eyed;

Huge tits and a fissured crotch

Were scored well in, and the space

Between her legs held scrawls

That set her fairly astride

A tuberous cock and balls

Autographed Titch Thomas, while

Someone had used a knife

Or something to stab right through

The moustached lips of her smile.

She was too good for this life.

Very soon, a great transverse tear

Left only a hand and some blue.

Now Fight Cancer is there.

Analysis

Context

-Written by Philip Larkin in 1962

-The poem was written in an era of sexism, so in the context in which it was published the poem is not necessarily sexist – or it may be trying to portray the sexualisation of women.

Form and Narrative

-It frequently uses a clash of formal/informal language, creating bathos.

-This may be representative of the contrasts between the upper class and the lower class – it presents the upper classes as educated, with a strong sense of morality, while the lower classes are uneducated, using crude language (huge tits), and bring destruction. The reader may find this uncomfortable to read unless they align with Larkin’s views – while the Satirical elegy promotes change through the ridicule of the idle rich, Larkin is simply criticising the lower classes.

-The poster symbolises corruption – fight the cancer.

-Generally iambic meter, though anapaestic feet are used.

-The poem drifts somewhere between formal meter and free verse.

-It may explore the illusory nature of desire and of making the world a perfect/beautiful place. Rapid deterioration shows reality – humans destroy the earth.

-It may be a satire to ridicule the modern culture of consumption – advertise – consume – ruin it.

-Society has degraded the perfect woman.

-‘Spread breast-lifting arms.’ – the last line of the first stanza shows cadence because it does not belong to any meter, so makes it uncomfortable to read, particularly because the last word is stretched (this adds to the bathos)

-Anapaest on ‘space’ and ‘stride’ makes it difficult and uncomfortable to read, stressing the end of the lines for extra emphasis.

-In the last stanza, there are 4 consecutive unstressed end lines, creating a tone of change. The movement is from dark humour to sadness.