For Sidney Bechet

For Sidney Bechet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEOeeOtXOKU

What is the poem about?

• Larkin writes about the Jazz composer Sidney Bechet whohe was a big fan of. • In the poem New Orleans (birthplace of jazz) is described, filledwith happy people and music.• There is a positive reflectionof memories, reminded by music, about love and happytimes.

The Structure

• Larkin makes the poemhave a jazz beat, and the rhymescheme and stanza scheme is unusual and unexpected like a jazz song.• The poem is an apostrophe because Larkin talks to someone as though they werepresent.

The First Stanza

• In the first stanza themusic is described with the ‘shakeslike New Orleans reflect in the water’. This simile is split over two lines,the word ‘shakes’ put at theend to ripple onto the next line. There is a theme of water in this stanza. • The poem is set up as a cause and effect, how the music causes people to imagine different places.

The Second Stanza

• The first scenario of love and beauty is described in the second stanza. • ‘Balconies, flower-baskets and quadrilles’ are romantic and pretty features. A quadrille is a square dance for couples. • Everyone is ‘making love’ and ‘going shares’ which means taking it easy. This is a calm, relaxed and fun atmosphere.

The Third Stanza• The third stanza is about the darker side of New Orleans. ‘Storyville’ is the red-light district.• Larkin describes the ‘sporting-house girls’ (prostitutes)as ‘like circus tigers’. Larkin places women in a negative, degrading view that’s quite sexist. Hecompares the ‘girls’ as animals, however they are tamed because they are being controlled. Before this the ‘tigers’ were wild and dangerous. • Larkin refers to the bible that states ‘who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies’. • If women were priced above rubies this could mean that they were expensive.

The Fourth Stanza

• In this stanza Larkin describes the wannabes, that sit inthe audience. ‘Manques’ are would-be scholars. The word alsomeaning ‘to lack’ in French, the scholars unfulfilled of their dreams.• Larkin uses a simile ‘like old plaids’ to describe the audience. Plaids could mean they are interwoven and engrossedinto the music as its close to them.

The Fifth Stanza• This stanza describes how music affects Larkin himself. He uses the pronouns ‘me’ and ‘’my’.• The music makes him feel the way love is said to make people feel. However this could be a paradox because he thinks he loves music, but doesn’t know because he’s never loved. • ‘Like an enormous yes’ is a caesura, this making an emphasise on Larkin’s positive view.

The Sixth Stanza

• Larkin says that music understands him, and speaks to him like a person; it is the ‘natural noise of good’. • ‘Long-haired grief and scored pity’, implies that when Larkin listens to music he forgets his problems. This relates to the African Americans, how jazz music was based on their music and ‘scored pity’ is a pun on a musical score, referring to thepity felt when listening to this genre.

Comparison – Love Songs In Age

• Larkin wrote the poemabout an elderly widow who finds the sheet music of some songs she used to play when she was young, and the cello plays a version of Bechet’s blues as a nostalgic song making her relive memories.• Both poems are about music and how they relate to memories and love.

Comparison – An Arundel Tomb

• In this poem Larkin hasa positive view on love and life, witha happier attitude compared to hisusual themes. • Love lasts through time, whether this be as a sculptural tomb or in the form of music.