A study of reading habits Essay

The subject of journeys is present in Philip Larkins poem, A remove of Reading Habits. However, it is not a physical journey that we rede, but a metaphorical journey about the speakers life progression by his changing escapisms created by books. The title is a mock, serious title for it sounds like a piece of academic research Larkin uses first person fictitious character to carry expression to things he would prefer not to have attributed to himself. The structure of the poem divided into three stanzas school years, adolescent years and the present.The tone is sarcastic and colloquial, that on with the shorter lines, creates a less serious poem from Larkin. In the first part of his journey, the persona is imaginative and loves to read, so much so that is it ruining his eyes. He imagines a fantasy world where he could be cool and deal out the right hook to his bullies. The alliteration of dirty dogs is symbolism of the personas bullies, which portrays them as the villains. It is the stories, which makes him believe he is invincible, like that of the heroes he reads about.The stories provide an escapism to which he can be brave, hero, and not the bullied kid to which he is in reality. at that place is a smooth, harmonious quality in the beginning stanza due to Euphony. This underscored how easygoing and fantasy-like childhood can be. The second part of his journey represents his adolescent years. We now see him with inch thick specs, which is ironic to him previously stating his compassion for reading was ruining his eyes. We see the persona become more gothic and dark, with his mod love of Horror Fiction.Cloaks and fangs sounds dangerous and eerie, which is his bare-ass escapism. Some critics rede that ripping could be vampire vocabulary but it also can refer to macrocosm posh. Through his journey through stanza two, we see him move on to more lustrous novels, where his escapism is him being a womanizer. Larkin use borrowed language of clubbed with sex and broke them up like meringues to create the poets whimsical world. The similie refers to his lust for sexual encounters with women.The phrases are quite cheesy and some suggest it is bad writing on Larkins behalf, but some argue it is Larkin trying to sound like a bad guy. Larkin is trying too hard to sound like Raymond Chandlers character, Marlowe, but it just doesnt work. In the final part of the personas journey, which leads him up to the present tense, we see a completely conflicting visual modality of reading. In the final stanza the speaker comes to terms with reality he can no longer hide behind books.He realizes that his world is less fulfilling than the fantasies visualised in books, and says dont read much now. He feels betrayed by books and his tone becomes bitter. The yellow figure evokes the sense of weakness and represents cowardly characteristics. This metaphor produces the effect of a cowardly character, which evidently relates to the persona. This means h e can no longer fantasice for the characters he looked up to are weak. With no more escapism, the persona no longer wants to read.In the penultimate line of the poem Lark says Get stewed, which is said in a light hearted jokey way. Some suggest it refers to getting drunk, which may be his alternative escapism, but some argue it means get lost, referring to the disappointment. On the contrary, the final line represents the personas new feelings towards books. He believes they are a worthless load of crap. The theme of the poem is that escapism and ignoring reality only makes life less fulfilling, which is illustrated through the theme of a journey.