In The Whitsun Weddings the title-poem describes the poet's journey by train from Hull to London. Whitsun is the seventh Sunday after Easter. In the 1950s, British tax law made the Whitsun weekend a financially advantageous time to be married.
In this poem Phillip has used a strange rhyme scheme a, b, a, b, c, d, e, c, d, e.
He has made this poem very affective by using so much description as he describes every little thing he sees from the houses to the Pullmans.
I this poem there is a very large variety of imagery being used `the secret like a happy funeral` this is quite odd as there is no happy funeral.
I can see how this poem can inspire many other poets as there is so much description and detail involved in this poem and Phillip Larkin has so much to say about this wedding he is attending. There is so much description involved in this poem so I can see why other poems like `the bride` and `the photographer` has been inspired by the witsun wedding.
Phillip Larkin has used a lot of imagery as the effect of these words and phrases leave you thinking and they all open up something new.
This poem contains a lot of content as he describes every thing he sees on his journey to London from hull `behind backs of houses, crossed streets ` he is describing what he sees on the train on his way to the wedding.
When he arrives at the wedding he begins to describe people there `I took for porters larking with the mails`, the fathers with broad belts under their suits and steamy foreheads`, `children frowned`, `the women snared`.
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