The speaker describes of the relationship that he/she is engaged in and the interaction they have on the bed. While the speaker believes that being in a bed together is a symbol of honesty, it becomes apparent that the speaker and the significant other are having trouble communicating with each other. "Lying together there goes far back" (line 2) remains ambiguous, as it can either mean that they are telling lies over time, or simply sleeping/lying together. In the second stanza, Larkin uses nature to describe what is happening outside: while the outside world continues and moves on, the inside world stagnates in isolation. In stanza three, however, Larkin uses man-made aspects of the environment to suggest that it does not bring adequate …show more content…
By the end of the poem, the speaker laments that it could be difficult for both of them to express how they feel. The alienation and isolation themes that resonate throughout the poem give it the distinction of a 20th Century style poem. The sense of broken communication and isolation is presented through the form and structure of the poem. The twelve lines, written in the iambic pentameter, hold an ABA CAC DCD EEE rhyme scheme divided into three tercets, portraying the lack of continuity and staggered nature of the couple's dialogue. As a whole, Larkin's poem provokes humans to think about both the gap between expectations and reality as well as the irony of love in the modern era. While love is a positive entity and its own irony allows humanity to create their own insight on love, reality will confront them with agonizing disappointment. In the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, this notion of love providing happiness but also inflicting pain is confined by society. In order to induce stability upon the human population, citizens take drugs called soma which stimulate happiness as well as calmness and libido in hopes that suffering and pain are completely eradicated. While it may sound appealing, the reality is that without pain, love will