Afternoons - Larkin

From the first stanza provided by Larkin, the audience is able to see that this poem is informing us of women and their children. Throughout this poem we get the image of how women are similar towards the nature that Larkin has portrayed in this stanza. From the trees we see that women are the roots within any family and we also see a metaphor from the phrase, "Summer is fading". From this the notion of the life being sucked out of these mothers is shown and the thought of all the excitement from love and marriage is slowly fading away. From the words "young mothers" we see that this is their only identity within the sixties and how they were unable to work but to merely tend to the children within that time. Finally the last line in this stanza portrays to us that this is a rite of passage and a passing of youth that is to occur but we get the thought of a Larkin asking us a question. Who is being set free? The mothers or the children? From allowing the mothers to do this it gives us the impression of irresponsibility and abondonment.
From the next stanza we see that they are different compared to the men due to the words, "skilled trades". With Larkin stating this we see that women have to spend all their time with the children whilst the men work, leaving the men little time with the children. Women have no means to earn a living and are placed as being dependant and trapped.
From the phrase, "Our Wedding, lying" we see that individuality occur with how two people were connected and united in this time but have now slowly drifted apart. Those are their memories but are different now due to the fact that they are fading fast. They are being pushed aside to be able to work and to tend to the children. This is also a juxtaposition due to the fact that lying can be seen as being ambigious amd untrue stating that love is really an illusion within this poem.
As we move onto the final poem we see that the word "acorns" implies to us the developement of children growing up. This imagery allows us to see that the children want to be able to find themselves without their parents involvement and to become independant.
From the final four lines we are able to see that there is the notion of responsibility of the parent and how they have more freedom and youth when away from home, as do the children. We also see the use of make-up with how it is congealed upon their faces to cover things up, cover the identity and shows us that really life does not flow.
Empathy is shown in this poem although Larkin states the notion of how careless young people can be with having several children.