Here

Here

Swerving east, from rich industrial shadows
And traffic all night north; swerving through fields
Too thin and thistled to be called meadows,
And now and then a harsh-named halt, that shields
Workmen at dawn; swerving to solitude
Of skies and scarecrows, haystacks, hares and pheasants,
And the widening river's slow presence,
The piled gold clouds, the shining gull-marked mud,

Gathers to the surprise of a large town:
Here domes and statues, spires and cranes cluster
Beside grain-scattered streets, barge-crowded water,
And residents from raw estates, brought down
The dead straight miles by stealing flat-faced trolleys,
Push through plate-glass swing doors to their desires -
Cheap suits, red kitchen-ware, sharp shoes, iced lollies,
Electric mixers, toasters, washers, driers – 

A cut-price crowd, urban yet simple, dwelling
Where only salesmen and relations come
Within a terminate and fishy-smelling
Pastoral of ships up streets, the slave museum,
Tattoo-shops, consulates, grim head-scarfed wives;
And out beyond its mortgaged half-built edges
Fast-shadowed wheat-fields, running high as hedges,
Isolate villages, where removed lives

Loneliness clarifies. Here silence stands
like heat. Here leaves unnoticed thicken,
Hidden weeds flower, neglected waters quicken,
Luminously-peopled air ascends;
And past the poppies bluish neutral distance
Ends the land suddenly beyond a beach
Of shapes and shingle. Here is unfenced existence:
Facing the sun, un-talkative, out of reach.

There are many examples of repetition throughout the poem: “here”, imagery, and stanza format. The repetition of “here” lacks a definite meaning, contributing to the monotonous flow of the poem and the uncertainty the subject feels. As the setting of the poem moves from industrialized city toward isolated villages in the first three stanzas, the stanza format remains the same: eight lines, with a list of items starting in the sixth line; the effect of this continuity is a feeling of monotony and disappointment.

Images of cities, towns, and farms are presented in the poem also. This visual description of the poem’s message helps Larkin subtly criticize the lack of emotion or depth of thought shown by his surroundings. The different images also show that despite the seeming benefits of an urban setting: proximity, “piled gold clouds” or a rural setting: simple, “undisturbed houses”, neither environment provides the humanity and joy which is “out of reach”.

The first stanza is filled with contrast. The physical movement of the speaker from the “rich industrial shadows” to the thin fields shows the gap in economic status between the two societies. In addition, the skies and clouds of the countryside are opposed by the “gull-marked mud”. This shows the parity within society that dominates the poem. In lines 6-8, Larkin includes a list of farming images: haystacks, hares, a river; this abundance of material goods rather than meaningful products (such as writings or diaries) expresses the increasing societal focus on material successes.

Larkin continues to condemn the increasing material consumerism of society in his second stanza; though the large town has “domes and statues, spires and cranes”, its residents still are concerned solely with their own well-being and material gain. The town has items “to their desires” yet instead of appreciating their possessions, the residents continue to produce useless grains and barges. With this, Larkin implies that consumerism is like a drug: the more you get (“cheap suits, red kitchen-ware, and sharp shoes”) the more you want, as residents begin to steal from each other.

In the third stanza, Larkin emphasizes the individualism that results from concentration on success. Others are ignored and disrespected as slaves or hindrances. Residents also build high hedges to shield themselves from each other, creating “isolate villages” and “removed lives”. The message of the poem is that serenity and harmony, though existent, are “out of reach” and that materialism results in inattention to others’ needs, portrayed in stanza four.

Larkin’s rhyme scheme, in which rhymes are present but the pattern changes in every four lines, and use of slant rhyme seem to parallel the inattention of materialists to detail. In addition, the first three stanzas of the poem are one continuous stream of thought. This ranting hints at the frustration of the speaker, who is disillusioned by the growing individualism.