Dockery and Son

Philip Arthur Larkin (9 August 1922 – 2 December 1985) was an English poet, novelist, and librarian. His first book of poetry, The North Ship, was published in 1945, followed by two novels, Jill (1946) and A Girl in Winter (1947), and he came to prominence in 1955 with the publication of his second collection of poems, The Less Deceived, followed by The Whitsun Weddings (1964) and High Windows (1974). He contributed to The Daily Telegraph as its jazz critic from 1961 to 1971, articles gathered in All What Jazz: A Record Diary 1961–71 (1985), and he edited The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse (1973).^[1] His many honours include the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry.^[2] He was offered, but declined, the position of Poet Laureate in 1984, following the death of Sir John Betjeman.

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COMMENTARY

In Dockery and Son, the reader is presented with a middle-aged protagonist who, whilst revisiting his alma mater, attempts to open ‘the door of where I used to live: / Locked.’ The locked door signifies an unattainable past and the disconnection he feels with his former life as a student. Larkin’s use of enjambment serves to emphasize the disconnection that the protagonist feels with his past. The fleeting nature of human life is contrasted by the timelessness of the world in which the protagonist lives. Despite the familiarity of this world to the protagonist, he feels comparatively anonymous, as is demonstrated when ‘A known bell chimes. I catch my train, ignored.’ Individual lives are nothing but ‘ranged / Joining and parting lines’ which ‘reflect a strong / Unhindered moon.’ The railway tracks are symbolic of the fact that human lives may interweave and diverge, yet will ultimately terminate. The moon above us all is eternal, yet we are not. Again, Larkin’s use of enjambment serves to emphasize this. This is a reminder of the insignificance of man in relation to the natural world, and this belief in the transiency of human existence is a key theme within The Whitsun Weddings.

However, this feeling of alienation is not limited to the setting of the natural world. On arriving in Sheffield (an industrial city and centre for manufacturing in the UK), the protagonist is greeted by hellish ‘fumes/ And furnace-glares’, and he ‘ate an awful pie.’ The ‘awful pie’ is a representative detail, metonymic of not only the railway station, but of the cheap and disparaging view that Larkin holds towards mass-produced consumer-driven urban life in the early 1960’s. The protagonist feels no more attached to urban life than he does to rural life, and the narrative voice only develops a flowing rhythm when he is fleeing from place to place on the train, perhaps in the hope of finding somewhere in which he can feel a sense of belonging. This is demonstrated through the alliterative phrase ‘Canal and clouds and colleges subside / Slowly from view.’

In the eyes of the protagonist the only certainty in life is death; ‘Life is first boredom, then fear / Whether or not we use it, it goes.’ Consequently, the manner in which one chooses to live one’s life is viewed as both unimportant and uncontrollable. For the protagonist, ‘To have no son, no wife, / No house or land still seemed quite natural.’ Dockery was blinded by the misconception that our lives are shaped by our beliefs and desires, when in fact his destiny was far more predicated by the ‘innate assumptions’ that society imposes upon us. Dockery was ‘Only nineteen’ when he became a father. Larkin implies that Dockery’s choice to become a parent was driven ‘Not from what / We think truest, or most want to do’, but out of fear of not being ‘capable’ of fulfilling this social obligation in later life. This methodical attitude towards parenthood is absurd in the eyes of the narrator; if life is so fleeting, what is the point in fulfilling social expectations? In the end, all that is left is ‘For Dockery a son, for me nothing, / Nothing with all a son’s harsh patronage.’ Parenthood is not viewed as fulfilling, but as constricting. Larkin further satirises the ‘innate assumption’ that ‘adding meant increase’ by using bureaucratic terminology to describe this methodical attitude towards parenthood. The title of the poem, Dockery and Son has resonances of a business’ name, and we are told that Dockery must have decided to become a father after having ‘taken stock / Of what he wanted.’ Larkin’s bureaucratic terminology draws a link between the rise in British consumerism and the blind pursuit of the ‘innate assumptions’ that society expects of us. Like any form of mass-produced commodity, people do not have children because they want them, but because they think that they ought to have them.

ANNOTATED LINES

STANZA WISE ANALYSIS

Stanza 1

Stanza one alludes the Dean of the speaker's university asking about 'Dockery', an individual whose son now attends the same university that he did. Alongside this, it depicts the speaker as returning to the place that is implied to be where life really begins; thus immediately presenting the reader with a comparison between 'Dockery' and the speaker. Larkin opts to describe the Dean in this stanza as 'Death-suited', presenting an ironic juxtaposition between this notion of being in a place where life supposedly begins, as the Dean is dressed in something that would presumably be worn at a funeral. It may be that Larkin intended to present the reader with this imagery coupled with the semantics of death early on, in order to give the reader the sense that the speaker's life has not mirrored 'Dockery's'. This may be symbolic of the speaker mourning the loss of their youth, having graduated from university. Therefore, 'suited' may be representative of a detachment, disguise or armour that the speaker utilises to protect themselves from this comparison to 'Dockery'- who, by this point, the reader is aware, may serve as a metaphor for achievements typical of the 20th Century; having children to prolong the memory of the individual. The notion of deception is also addressed in the initial stanza, as 'Our version' would allude to a warped memory of what the speaker's youth was like, thus Larkin may be suggesting that 'Dockery's' path may not be as ideal as is suggested by the title, and perhaps through the act of giving life to another individual, 'Dockery' may have metaphorically died himself.

Stanza 2

The second stanza of 'Dockery' opens with a short cause - 'Locked.' Larkin may have opted to allude to a locked door, through enjambment with the initial stanza as to present the speaker's life as stunted in some way, presumably through having no family of his own. This links neatly to Larkin's own life, as he too never chose to have a wife, or a family. Therefore, it can be interpreted that this stanza is symbolic of how that path in life is merely a commodity, not an essential or given. Larkin then alludes to the notion of having a 'son' again, thus critiquing the social norm of creating a nuclear family structure in post-war Britain, as this 'son's' name is neglected repeatedly, highlighting the insignificance of the individual; thus suggesting that having children is merely a narcissistic, strategic move to elevate one's status in a rigid conservative society. Also, throughout 'Dockery', the rhyme scheme is irregular. This may mirror this element of non-conformity.

Stanza 3

Larkin's focus shifts in the third stanza, from concentrating on self-comparison, to presenting the notion of a metaphoric suffocation; thus continuing the theme of death, though depicting a noticeably harsher critique of society than is implied in the first two stanzas. Through the anaphora in 'High-collared public-schoolboy' in the opening line, Larkin cleverly manipulates punctuation, in hyphenating the two phrases, to present the ironically unexpected allusion to suffocation. This is reinforced through the imagery of the 'High-collar' to enable the reader to empathise with the desperation the speaker inevitably feels, as constricted by the uniform of social conformity. Also, by juxtaposing the imagery of a 'High-collar' and the stereotype of a 'public-schoolboy', Larkin manipulates the sense of disorientation in the reader, as a 'high-collar' would typically allude to an upper-class child, perhaps a choir boy, of a private school. Therefore, Larkin may be subtly critiquing the class system in this stanza, opting for a more holistic approach to social critique than just the nuclear family structure. Perhaps this 'public-schoolboy' is 'Dockery's' 'son'. If so, it may be interpreted that Larkin intended to highlight the flaws within domestic life, and alongside it, the pressures faced by the children in a society with such rigid traditional family values - as is alluded to in the notion of suffocation that dominates this particular stanza.

Stanza 4

Stanza four's anaphora in 'Unhindered moon' appears to allude to the beauty in nature. However, it could be interpreted as representing Larkin himself, as he may have felt 'unhindered' in not having children himself. As the poem largely concerns having children, it may be interpreted that the speaker feels like an outsider in the society Larkin depicts, due to not having children in the baby boomer generation. Alternatively, this reference to the moon may signify the impermanence of life and its insignificance in relation to nature. Larkin implicitly presents his speaker as an observer, which mimics his own style - this may be alluded to in the reference to the moon, as the moon is often referred to in Roman mythology as watching over Earth, thus creating the sense that the speaker is semi-omniscient which would parallel an individual nearing the end of their life. This notion is poignantly reflected in the speaker's visiting their old university, as this is a place where superior knowledge is typically acquired.

Stanza 5

In this particular stanza, Larkin seemingly directly addresses a regular trope of his - time. Through the metaphor of a door that is 'warp[ed] tight-shut', Larkin may be subtly commenting on the juxtaposition between the notion of all doors being open after education and the reality that is revealed over the passage of time. Also, this notion of things being 'warp[ed]' by time is conveyed through the pre-programmed idealism of believing that the individual needs to be 'added to' in the form of children. Larkin may have intended this 'warp[ing]' of idealism to mirror how the Second World War affected how society viewed its collective identity, as 'add[ing]' to the population would invariably not solve the problems of the individual, or indeed, the world. Also by utilising enjambment at the end of each stanza, though more noticeably in this one, as the continuation of 'all we've got' into stanza six's 'and how we got it'. Larkin typically reminds the reader that time is precious despite day-to-day life appearing mundane.

Stanza 6

Finally, in the last stanza, Larkin ironically switches his focus to youth and childhood. Through the philosophically-toned statement 'Life is first boredom', Larkin conveys his personal opinion that his own childhood was boring; thus continuing his trope in the tone of pessimism. Interestingly, by selecting 'youth' as his end focus, Larkin ultimately reminds us that life inevitably ends with death; despite children, marriage or an Oxford education.

EXTERNAL REFERENCES

An Analysis by Ian Bland

ASSIGNMENT

Analyse ‘Dockery and Son’ in the light of Larkin’s philosophy of Death.

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