The Whitsun Weddings by Philip Larkin, read by Alan Bennett, as part of the Primrose Hill Community Association's online Christmas Drink with the Neighbours phca.cc/2020/12/a-christmas-d...
My absolute favourite from Larkin... Just to listen to the rhythm of the words and the train he was in, resounding in his brilliant phrasing brings tears to me.. If you close your eyes when listening to Whitsun Weddings,, you are there, can smell the smoke, can hear the noise, can feel the heat through the east facing window.. picture every event, at the stations. the alcohol on the breaths of family waving goodbye.. and as for those Porters? I absolutely love this by P L . Can listen to it over and over.. Harvey Perkoff
A perfect choice of poem from a perfect reader of Larkin and the only one, apart from the poet himself and, perhaps, Tom O'Bedlam, who, to my ears, 'gets it right'. I'm also charmed and heartened that Alan Bennett doesn't understand those last two lines either! Obviously I THINK I know what he means...
For me Larkin’s reading of this poem will always remain the definitive one. I interpret the ‘difficult’ final stanza as a metaphor of how desire and promise frequently turn to disappointment and regret in a marriage - or indeed, in life. It’s that very English viewpoint that Larkin epitomises. Rather mundanely I think Larkin pinched the imagery from Olivier’s film of Henry V, but the inventive step he makes in then applying it to all Cupid’s arrows of passion is a true reflection of his genius.
