Perfectly balanced poem Essay

Essential Beauty by Philip Larkin is a perfectly balanced poem of two 16-line stanzas. In the poem Larkin explores the subject of advertising in the archean 60s. He bring forths by describing the subjects on huge billboards on the sides and ends of buildings. He suggests that these enormous images are placed in slum areas and that this is inappropriate and doubtful in its honest intention.Larkins outstanding criticism is directed towards the suffice of the adverts.He makes it clear that motor oil and cuts of salmon, are of no consequence or beyond the finicky abi illuminatedy of the people who live in the blocks of streets and slums where these billboards are pasted. Cars and deep arm chairs bed time cups and effulgent electric fires warming cats by slippers on warm mats are certainly not the experiences of those who dwell in the vicinity of the outrageous adverts.TheyReflect none of the rained-on streets and squaresThey dominate the outdoors.This criticism is at its height in i ts definition of an advert for butterHigh above the gutterA silver knife sinks into golden butter. here(predicate) he employs a cheap advertisement rhyme and exposes the ridiculous image which is intelligibly inappropriate for those upon whose rest home the advert may be displayed. Furthermore Larkin clearly despises the image ofWell balanced families, in all rightMidsummer weather.In the second stanza Larkin exposes the frothy emptiness of the images and moves on to explain the reality behind the images in the advert. As a result he demonstrates the distortion and dishonesty of advertising. Larkin states that we live in a antithetic world from that which the advertisers depictour live imperfect eyesThat stare beyond this world.nothings makeAs new or washed quite so clean,In a country pothouse the clients are all with clothed ones from tennis clubs.We learn that there is a boy throwing up in the gents toilet and a pensioner being cheated at the same time. Larkin reserves the f inal exam thrust for the cigarette advertisers. The dying smokers will not have a chance match lit meeting with a delightful individual however hard meeting with a beautiful person however hard they drag on their fags. The reality which Larkin seems to suggest in the last two lines, is that the beautiful women is visible, standing apart, recognising the dying smoker and the image of her goes dark as the smoker dyes.Philip Larkin exposure of the falseness, bad gustatory modality and down right dishonesty of billboard advertising is shocking and disturbing. At a time when the macrocosm of Britain was beginning to enjoy a rising income the advertisers were settling vulture like to grab any tautological income from the poorest people. The advertisers were openly suggesting that the purchase of their products would inrich their lives, maintained their youth and give them motorcars. Larkin seemingly intense dislike of this whole metier is based on the sense of humanity and compassio n. He does seem to care for the people who the advertisers are nerve-racking to win everywhere those who have spent most of their lives trying to live on a genuinely small income.I found Philip Larkins poem Essential Beauty quite unfathomable to begin with. However once I was aware of it was making a comments about billboard advertising over forty years ago I began to understand Larkins subject and became aware of his stance. Although the advertising he describes is extremely dated in some respects compared to the two -dimensional advertising of today, it is none the less clearly recognisable from the poem.The advertisement depicts very middle classifyed people, images and expectations. Larkin certainly explains the contrast of these images with the reality of the lives and living conditions of the working class people who had to live with these enormous images around them, dominating their lives. I sympathise with Larkin, I think this instance of advertising must have been ins ulting if not a clear signal that there was a huge division between the classes at that time. I think this poem is a powerful historical statement about inequality and insensitivity