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Exploring Identity and Time in Here, An Arundel Tomb and The Whitsun Weddings

Larkin has been criticized over the years for the moroseness of his poems, the blackened description of everyday life that some people say lacks depth, however, unlike many other poets, Larkin does not always write the truth or the depth of his feelings. In many there is a voice, trying to convince its author of something that is usually quite evident or exploring itself but revealing only the surface. Why he is trying to convince himself and what are is true feelings present the real challenge and profundity of Larkin poems. The search for one's identity, combined for everybody in one's unique fantasies and realities is a recurrent theme in his poems. As is time, the passing of it, the transformation it engenders and the damage it inflicts.

In "Here", identity or the search for one's identity is the main theme. The search is symbolized by the journey taken by Larkin, which takes him through the countryside before Hull, through Hull and finally into the countryside and the beach outside Hull. He finds his identity in the countryside outside Hull, however, he knows that although it is here that he yearns for, it is not his true self, it is his fantasy, the "Here" he would like to live in but that is nevertheless "out of reach". His real identity can be found in Hull with the people and city he so despises.

His journey starts in the farm lands before Hull, he does not stop his car, he swerves passed everything as he knows it is not what he is searching for and the slowness of the life he describes here is used in contrast to the imagined speed of the author's swerving vehicle on the motorway.

His next stop, his arrival in Hull marks an abrupt change in scenery ("the surprise of a large town") and the driver stops his car, Larkin uses the word "Here" here for the first time so that we assume he has at last found something,...