A Study Guide for Philip Larkin's "Aubade"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for Philip Larkin's "Aubade," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Poetry for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Poetry for Students for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Sep 28, 2016
• ISBN: 9781535818872

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Aubade

Philip Larkin

1977

Introduction

Philip Larkin's Aubade was published in a 1977 edition of the Times Literary Supplement, a journal that had frequently published his work since the 1950s. Aubade is one of the last poems that Larkin produced, and it is considered by critics to be one of his greatest. In this lyric poem, the speaker explains to the reader how he feels when he wakes up in the middle of the night with an acute awareness of his own mortality, which gives way to an overwhelming fear of his own impending death. As the sun slowly rises behind the speaker's bedroom curtains, his fear does not wane, though he does become progressively more conscious and analytical.

The title of the poem, Aubade, is a play on the classical definition of the word. Traditionally an aubade is a joyful poem that celebrates the coming of the morning, and aubades are often love poems. Larkin's Aubade is the complete opposite of a joyful love poem; to the speaker of this poem, the coming of the morning represents his being one more day closer to death. However, the sun rising outside does provide some relief, as it initiates the start of the workday, which will allow the speaker to be distracted from the horror of his own mortality. A copy of Aubade can be found in the anthology Death, Dying and Bereavement, which was edited by Donna Dickenson, Malcolm Johnson, and Jeanne Samson Katz and published in 2000.

Author Biography

Larkin was born on August 9, 1922, in Coventry, Warwickshire, England, the youngest child of Sydney Larkin and Eva Emily Day. Sydney Larkin was a successful, self-made man who was outspoken about his love for Nazism as well as his love for literature. The latter undoubtedly had a profound impact on