By Philip Larkin

Essential Beauty

Themes: illusion, deception, beauty and reality

http://youtu.be/7d3VAYGnXjY

‘Essential Beauty’ is a poem in which Larkin juxtaposes advertising

and reality in an often ridiculous manner in order to show how

advertising deceives us and dresses up the reality of life with

unrealistic images.

The title alone alludes to the idea that it was essential in society at

the time to strive for the beauty that was displayed by advertisements

and suggests that beauty was a necessity of life. However, this was a

society based on deception as the adverts claimed that people needed

items which were unnecessary or could not live up to the image

displayed on the billboard.

Meaning and Context

During the time period the poem was based upon (the late

1950s/early 1960s), advertising was growing hugely popular as it

offered people the chance to achieve their unfulfilled dreams. Many of

the food items mentioned on the advertisements would have been fine

cuisine and therefore, the type of food people would strive to be able to

afford. The poem is also thought to be set in Hull, which was heavily

bombed during the Second World War and left riddled with holes. In the

place of these holes, rather than rebuilding, many billboards were

placed to cover up the destruction and put it out of mind.

Context

In the first line, the frames of the advertisements are stated as being “as large as

rooms”, thus implying that they are containers which hold our lives, just as in

‘Ambulances’.

These advertisements “block” the ends of many streets and prevent anyone from

being able to escape the false imagery. They are a form of imprisonment which

symbolise how society felt trapped in the world of advertisement –tricked by

unattainable beauty.

Whilst “graves” has connotations of death, these symbols of our mortality are

screened/covered by adverts for “custard”- a laughable and irrelevant term which

clearly shows how the advertisers cared little for the serious issues of life and instead

strived to create blissful images. Mortality and suffering are hidden with pleasant

images which mean nothing.

The alliteration of the ‘s’ sound (e.g. “salmon, shine”) also creates a soft and enticing

sound which displays how people were lured into buying the advertised products.

Stanza One Analysis

Further analysis-Stanza One

Various idealistic images are listed by Larkin as being depicted on the

advertisements and the people upon them “owe their smiles, their cars…to that

small cube”. Those that appear on these advertisements, Larkin seems to

suggest, owe their fortune to advertising that OXO cube or alternatively, it is

trying to say that the people who buy the product can have those smiles also

and live the dream life they desire.

All of the images portrayed are references to “how life should be” in an ideal

world with no imperfections. However, this is impossible as the auxiliary verb

“should” highlights- this is just unachievable advice, as further proved by the

comical and absurd rhyme of “gutter” and “butter”. Such is the stark contrast of

disgust and beauty that the idea itself is made laughable.

Moving into the second stanza, repetition of the word “pure” appears to show that these

adverts that “dominate” our lives look down upon us as “imperfect”. There is a paradox

here however in that adverts are considered “pure” when actually they are just an illusion

and untrue whilst humans are perhaps the more pure for their flaws.

Reality starts to seep into this stanza, where nothing is “new” or “washed quite clean”

and people aspire to live the lives depicted in advertisements. They join “tennis clubs” and

wear pure “white” yet spend their time in “dark-raftered pubs”, thus dispelling the idea of

them as wealthy people. The pitiful image of the “boy puking” underlines the fact that

people were disappointed by what the adverts promised and even those in old age were

drawn into buying the expensive products. The alliteration of “Granny Graveclothes” (the

tea that the old men drink) makes a blunt joke of death yet the advertisers do not mind

exploiting these worries that play on people’s minds.

Stanza Two Analysis

Further analysis-Stanza Two

In the last few lines of the poem, Larkin shifts to the more darker theme of death as the

“dying smokers sense…that unfocused, she”. Alluring women were often used to sell

cigarettes at the time but no “drag ever brought near” the fantasy that smoking would attract

women. A different interpretation is that the “she” referred to has not been pulled in by the

consumerist society. Caesura is used in the very last line to put emphasis upon the idea that

death is “smiling” and that people don’t realise the truth of advertising until it is too late.

The first 16-line stanza focuses upon the perfect images created in the advertisements and

how the myths were portrayed.

The second 16-line stanza destroys the illusions and shows how the adverts have no

connection to reality.

Rhyme appears in some places to give a comical and disconnected effect as the contrast

between real life and advertisements is blatantly presented.

‘Love Songs in Age’- illusion and reality. Whilst love is a lie in this poem, in

‘Essential Beauty’, it is advertising that is the deception.

‘Here’- how modern life and consumerism pollute lives.

‘Talking in Bed’- putting up a false front or speaking false words.

‘Sunny Prestatyn’- people are conned into believing there is a better world

through advertising.

Sources: http://www.allinfo.org.uk/levelup/essential.htm ,

https://thewhitsunweddings.wordpress.com/2014/09/22/essential-beauty/

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