28,000

28,000What does this number represent?

The average person will live 28,000 days...

How many have you got left?More importantly, what are you planning to do with them?

Days by Larkin

LO: to analyse the meaning of the poem and identify comparative links with Equus.

What are days for?Days are where we live. They come, they wake us Time and time over.They are to be happy in: Where can we live but days?Ah, solving that questionBrings the priest and the doctor In their long coatsRunning over the fields.

Line by line analysis

Short, no story, no characters, simple language, everyday notion...so what does this little poem mean?

What are days for?

What is the tone of this question?

Days are where we live.

Days = homeWhat about nights?What are the connotations of daylight and

darkness?

They come, they wake us

If this the answer to the opening question, is it a good one?

Time and time over

What is the ambiguity of this line?

They are to be happy in:

What is the tone of this line?

Where can we live but days?

Is there an alternative answer?

Ah, solving that question

What is the significance of 'ah'?

Brings the priest and the doctor

Why?

In their long coats

What does this mean in a literal sense?What does it symbolise?

Running over the fields.

How is the image of the fields spoilt by the priest and the doctor?

Activity

Write a sentence summarising the meaning of this poem.

For an extra challenge, include AO3 and 4.

In this short, enigmatic poem, Larkin addresses the issues of mortality, illness and death with remarkable simplicity. Despite huge social change and Larkin's concern with the contemporary decline of civilisation (similar to TS Eliot), death and sickness remain inexorable realities. His break in form from stately stanzas in pentameter to free verse in short lines is held together by the repetition of the words 'days', 'they' and the 'v, sounds. Its strong effect comes from its break in form which emphasises life's great mystery that even the doctor and priest cannot solve.

Homework

Read Equus pg 89: ‘He was there…’Consider what comparative link you could

make with the poems we have studied today.Write a comparative paragraph.

Prepare a coursework question. Use the document I gave you to guide you. Also available on the blog. Bring to next lesson.