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present death in
Ambulance?
Introduction
As Philip Larkin grew older, he became more and more obsessed
with the concept of death. Larkin was largely considered to be an
atheist; so for Larkin death didn't mean passing through the pearly
gates into heaven, instead death was an all-powerful entity that
could take you at any time to some unknown terrifying abyss. In
Larkin's poemAmbulances, he uses an ambulance to convey both
the loneliness of age and death, and the fact that death comes to
all, sooner or later. Ambulances are generally vehicles that are
associated with help and rescue, but in this poem the ambulance
is portrayed in an ominous light, in order to jar the reader's sense
of security. In this poem, the ambulance is in effect like the Grim
Reaper, who comes to collect souls and ferry's them into the
afterlife.
- no sight, no sound,
No touch or taste or smell, nothing to think with,
Nothing to love or link with.
Stanza 1
Larkin's uses the confessional to demonstrate the difference a generation
makes; the previous generation would have gone to church to heal themselves,
while the new generation with its new health care system went to hospitals;
thus, the ambulance becomes the modern day confessional. Confessionals are
enclosed stalls in a Roman Catholic Church in which priests hear confessions.
"Closed like confessionals" is a simile; the closed door of the confessional is
similar to the confined space of an ambulance when its doors are closed. Like a
confessional, an ambulance can be a very vulnerable place for its inhabitants;
you bear your soul in a confessional, and put your life/body in the hands of the
paramedics
Closed like confessionals
Isolated areas, separate from normal flow of everyday activity.
Places of sanctuary and support. Death remains as unknown to us.
Stanza 2
Then children strewn on steps or road, Or woman
coming from shops
Interrupts the normal activities of those within its
vicinity, and yet we are curious.
Stanza 3
Sense the solving emptiness That lies just under all we
do, And for a second get it whole
Constant
We try to forget death and keep at arms length, and yet
without it life would be meaningless
Deadened air
Death silences all those who are present, emphasizing
the shock that it causes us.
Kills the very air.