Phillip Larkin explains in his 1964 poem “Here” that a man is traveling south trying to get away from something in the northeast. Larkin’s tone during this poem is dark, depressed, and lonelybecause he is leaving a once populated city for a small deserted town. The poem is a pastoral and narrative poem because it tells a story about life in the country.
The diction and denotation of Larkin’s writing allows the readers to understand more and it changes the tone of the poem. He is trying to make the poem seem isolating and deep.
Throughout this poem Larkin uses different types of imagery. “piled gold clouds, the shining gull-marked mud” (line 8) shows the reader type of surroundings that the town is in. In lines 15-16 Larkin writes about “cheap suits, red kitchen-ware, sharp shoes, iced lollies, electric mixers, toasters, washers, driers--” he is still explaining the surroundings of the town, including the shops a few lines later.
Larkin doesn’t use as many similes as imagery, but he does explain the wheat fields “as high as hedges.” This could mean that they are isolating themselves in the town from the other people that are around them.
Larkin writes about how the man travels south which seems to be written about going to the Mississippi River. This is showing the ambiguity of the poem because it could seem as though he is describing his town or another town that he passes through.