Explore the Ways in Which Larkin and Abse Write About Women

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In the poem “Sunny Prestatyn”, Larkin uses a poster of a “girl” to present women as merely a sex object and that sex does sell as she was “kneeling up on the sand/In tautened white satin”. The use of a sinister and sexually voyeuristic tone creates an uncomfortable atmosphere. The tone then turns vulgar as he talks about the girl on the poster getting “slapped up one day in March” as if referring to rape as Abse uses connotations of real violence such as, “snaggle-toothed and boss-eyed;/Huge tits and a fissured crotch”. However, Larkin’s use of the word “astride” suggests that the girl had control over the situation whilst the use of the word “tuberous” to describe the “cock and balls” as if trying to create a mocking tone. In the third and final stanza, the use of violence is shown as “Someone had used a knight/Or something to stab right through” giving the reader as image of death, whilst the addition in the moustache could be seen as an aggressive desexualisation or cancellation of her womanliness. After only a “hand and some blue” being left from the vandalising of the poster, we see that it is replaced by one saying “Fight Cancer” suggesting that this is now something that fits better into society. Similarly in “A Study of Reading Habits” even though primarily not being based on women, Larkin use of language to describe and towards women presents disturbing views for the reader. This is shown when he talks about his brutal sexual fantasies as he “broke them up like meringues” and “clubbed” women with “sex!” Both poems highlight how Larkin sees women as a sex object and shows no intimate relationship with them or deeper feelings that could have been influenced by his own personal experiences. However, Abse in the poem “Two Photographs” talks about the existence of two women in his life; his grandmothers, Annabella and “formidable” Doris. Abse portrays his
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