Poetry of Departures

What is more terrifying: staying the same forever or venturing into the wide unknown? British poet Philip Larkin (1922-1985) examines the dichotomy between home and the risk of a new, unfamiliar place in his 1955 poem "Poetry of Departures." Using colloquial diction and a hefty amount of irony, Larkin examines if it's better to forfeit a comfortable life for the sake of novelty or forever live inside the comfort zone. Written by a man who himself lived in the same town for 30 years, the speaker's ultimate decision is predictable (if not disappointing and ambiguous).

Poetry of Departures At a Glance

Poetry of Departures by Philip Larkin

"Poetry of Departures" was first included in Philip Larkin's second collection of poetry, The Less Deceived (1955). It was this collection that earned Larkin recognition in literary circles and positioned him as one of the most promising up-and-coming English poets in the post-war period.

In many ways, "Poetry of Departures" reflects Larkin's own life. Born in Coventry, England to a cold, distant family, Larkin stayed in England for almost his entire life. His father was a Nazi supporter and after World War II, Larkin was fearful of leaving the country. He never travelled to America or Canada, and he rarely even travelled throughout Europe. England was his emotional safe haven.

In 1955, Larkin moved to Hull, a coastal town in Northern England. He accepted a position as head librarian at the university, and although he thought very little of the town at first, he lived and worked there for 30 years until his death. Just like the speaker in "Poetry of Departures," he could never quite leave the place that he called home.

In a 1964 interview with BBC, Larkin said this about Hull:

Poetry of Departures Poem

Poetry of Departures Summary

The first line is a slight exaggeration of the idiom "secondhand." The idiom, usually used in context of "to hear something secondhand" means that the information has passed through two people. Instead of hearing information from the source, it gets passed between people, making the information less reliable and more susceptible to other people's interpretations. The fact that the speaker has heard about the man leaving town "fifth-hand" (1) shows that he is very removed from the situation and never knew the man or even his reasons to move. The speaker is an uninvolved commentator who is simply reflecting on the idea of leaving, rather than the man himself.

The simile compares the man's leaving to an epitaph, a message honoring someone who has died. To the speaker, the man's leaving signals a definite end. He's not just no longer present, his absence is like a death: permanent, forever, and hopefully bringing him to a better place. To the speaker, at least, there is no coming back from leaving.

Fig. 1 - The speaker compares what other people in town say about the man's leaving to an epitaph, depicting how final and serious the speaker takes it.

The poem uses simile again two stanzas later to elaborate on the speaker's feelings towards leaving. He says,

The simile shows how emotional the speaker is about the thought of leaving. He equates it to a sexual encounter or a fistfight. It is at once both enticing and dangerous. He desires it and fears it at the same time.

Transferred epithet

The next literary device that the speaker uses is a transferred epithet. Like simile, this shows that the subject of the speaker's musings isn't the man himself, but rather the idea of moving and reinventing one's life. The speaker calls the man's leaving town

The man himself is the audacious one, in reality, because he made the decision to change his life. The speaker, however, turns the focus entirely to the move itself, referring to the move as fearless and brave in addition to purifying at the basic level.

Irony and repetition

The second stanza switches the focus away from moving and towards the ironic opinions the speaker holds towards home. The speaker's life is comfortable, familiar, and "perfect" (15), filled with things he himself picked out. But at the same time he hates home and the superficial relationship he has with the objects in it:

His entire depiction of home is ironic because he provides no evidence that warrants the hostility he feels towards it. In fact, all of the things he doesn't like about home are presented with positive connotations. He even uses the word "perfect" to describe the comfortability of his life. But the very thought of being so comfortable makes the speaker uncomfortable. He craves excitement and newness in his life and is disappointed by the calmness and order of being in a familiar place.

He hates being home, not because of what it has, but because of what it lacks. It lacks conflict and excitement, which the speaker believes will make life interesting. He wishes to move away because he believes that would provide him with the tension that makes life exhilarating.

Fig. 2 - The speaker resents the orderliness of his "perfect" life, including the books he specially chose.

This repetition of the word "good" in this stanza also represents the orderliness of his life that has come to be so tedious. Everything he owns is good and predictable, not new and exciting.

In the final stanza, when the speaker reflects on what life would be like if he were to leave and start over again, he uses repetition to show that life in a new town wouldn't be different enough to warrant such a switch. Instead, that life would morph to look just like his current one:

This will be described in further detail in the oxymoron section below, but it is worth noting that the idea of books and a perfect life are repeated. No matter how much things change, in his quest to build a good life for himself, the speaker will eventually grow bored of being comfortable and crave conflict again.

Oxymoron

The poem ends with the oxymoron "Reprehensibly perfect" (32). The speaker realizes that no matter where he goes, his desire for a simultaneously comfortable and exhilarating life is unattainable. He only wants to move because he thinks different places are alluring in the sense of their mystery and newness. And he only hates his home because its well-known and intimately familiar. But no matter where he moves, his day to day will eventually become familiar and boring to him again. Nowhere he moves to will be strange and exciting forever; the longer he stays the more knowable and boring it will become.

The speaker decides to stay where he is because of this oxymoron. His home is "reprehensibly perfect" (32), but it is home: a familiar place full of warmth and comfort. He realizes that it isn't worth it to take a risk and move. It may begin as a fun adventure, but eventually it become a place of predictability and resentment like anywhere else.

Poetry of Departures Diction

The diction in "Poetry of Departures" is predominately informal and colloquial. This contributes to the humor of the poem as well as positions the speaker as a common person. He isn't fancy or formal. Instead, his word choice reflects that of many working class people who are disillusioned with adult life.

The speaker uses colloquial words and slang like "chucked up" (2), "junk" (13), and "stubbly" (27). He talks like a regular guy on the street, not like he's reciting stuffy poetry. He also uses vulgar language ("bastard" in line 20) and flippantly discusses sex ("she undid her dress" in line 19). He seems very open, even though he is cynical and pessimistic.

There are a few times that the speaker's diction shifts to be more poetic. When he discusses the move, he calls it audacious, purifying, and elemental (7). He doesn't just say he works hard, he says he's "Sober and industrious" (23). And he refers to a comfortable home life without conflict as "Reprehensibly perfect" (32). All of these tricky, poetic words are used to define the speaker's central conflict. He wishes it was easy to just get up and move, but he realizes it's much more difficult than it seems. There are layers to place that he hasn't quite uncovered and, like big poetic words, the decision to stay or leave is difficult to fully understand and is open to interpretation.

Poetry of Departures Themes

The major themes in the poem are home as familiar and safe but tedious, and the unknown as exciting and new but risky. The primary tension is between the conflict inherent in these two themes.

Home as familiar and tedious

The speaker is extremely critical of the idea of home from the second stanza. He uses words like hate, detest, and junk to describe the life that he has built for himself. If it wasn't for the positive words interposed with the negative ones, the reader would think that the speaker holds an entirely negative view of his home.

Ironically, the other words he uses to describe home are "specially-chosen," "good," and "perfect." There isn't anything physically wrong with home, rather it's his own perception of the place. It has every objects he needs and wants, it is familiar, and it is orderly. But its perfection and familiarity have caused it to become boring. The speaker is obsessed with the idea of leaving home, not because there is anything wrong with it, but because it is "reprehensibly perfect" (32).

The unknown as exciting and risky

On the other hand, the speaker seems almost obsessed with the idea of the unknown and the unfamiliar. He equates hearing about other people leaving to the adrenaline rush of a sexual encounter or taking a punch in a fight. He glamorizes the unknown, saying he would

He doesn't literally want to walk through streets with tree nuts on the ground or hide out below the deck of a ship. But he wants his life to be simultaneously that easy and that adventurous. He says "stubbly with goodness" (27) to depict that he is so carefree and so busy enjoying life that he doesn't have time to shave.

Just like home, he doesn't specifically say why he fears the unknown. The reader has to infer that he is fearful of the risk involved in restarting one's life. He says that lifestyle would be "artificial," meaning its not natural but rather manmade and impossible to sustain. Whether he's afraid that this new life might turn out to be "reprehensibly perfect" or just reprehensible, that is not a risk that the speaker is willing to take.

Poetry of Departures Meaning

Throughout the entire poem, the speaker argues that he wants to leave. He hates his home, his things, and, in essence, his life. But there is something keeping him firmly rooted to home. When he thinks about moving and diving into the unknown, it is really fear that holds him back.

Of course, he doesn't come right out and say that he's scared of the risk inherent in leaving a familiar place. But he does note that he doesn't want a life that is "artificial" (29), even if choosing the safe path feels like "such a deliberate step backwards" (30). Because the truth is there is no guarantee that if he upends his entire life he will be happier.

Fig. 3 - The speaker chooses to stay with the familiar instead of risking the unknown

Think of that old adage, "the grass is greener on the other side." In the first half of the poem, that is the logic behind the speaker's desire to move: he thinks that there is more excitement waiting for him somewhere else. But he quickly realizes that giving up a comfortable life for the sake of novelty and excitement may not be worth the risk.

The poem is about the inherent tension between living a comfortable life in the familiar and taking a risk by adventuring into the unknown. Our speaker decides that, for him, a boring life of comfort is worth more than diving blindly into the unfamiliar without any assurance that it will be better.