Poem Deception by Philip Larkin

Poem - Deception                                                                                                             - Philip Larkin...

Poem - Deception 

                                                                                                          - Philip Larkin

Introduction and Origin of the story:

              "Deception" by Philip Larkin tells of the aftermath of a young woman’s rape and the way both rapist and victim were changed.

 The poem begins with Larkin utilizing a passage from Henry Mayhew’s work, London Labour and the London Poor. The selection comes from a young woman who was raped. She tells of her distress after the attack was over. This creates a setting for the poem and informs a reader before the text even begins that the events depicted will be graphic, or at least emotionally straining. 

 In the first stanza he describes how the woman’s grief was forced upon her. It is something the speaker is able to “taste” now and is doing his best to convey. He also describes the sights and sounds around the London that might’ve made their way into the room where the woman was raped. The world was going on without her. 

 In the second stanza he spends time discussing the issue that plague the rapist. He thought that by attacking this woman that his desire would be sated. He was deceived, as the title suggests. His deception is said to be worse than that suffered by the woman. This implies that the woman was tricked into the situation in which she was attacked.

Stanza 1 Explanation:

    In the first stanza of ‘Deceptions’ the speaker begins by using his senses to draw a reader closer to the scene of the attack mentioned in the epigraph. He is “distant” from the location of the event, as well as the time it happened. Even so, he can “taste the grief.” His empathy is so strong, thanks to Mayhew’s reporting, that it is like he’s there. 

 Larkin makes use of his speaker’s senses in order to paint the scene as clearly as possible. He is unable to know the woman’s pain personally, but he does his best, as a fellow human being, to imagine and convey that pain. One of the most important senses he makes use of in this stanza is taste. He speaks of her of grief as tasting “Bitter and sharp.” The rapist forced this grief on the woman and, not without sexual connotations, made her “gulp.” The grief became part of this young woman. She carried it away from that bed and into the rest of her life. 

 When she was being raped, the rest of the world was carrying on. Larkin’s speaker notes how the sun came occasionally into the room, warming it in bits. Then there was the sound of the “wheels along the street outside.” He describes the sounds they made as “Worry.” This likely connects to the bouncing and rattling they make as they hit the cobblestones. 

 In the next line he adds that “bridal London bows the other way” while the young girl was being raped, and after. She is no longer going to be a part of the “bridal” tradition. As she quoted saying in the epigraph, society is now going to see her as “ruined.” Her chance at a good life is likely over. 

 In the next four lines the speaker explains the woman’s state of mind now that she is trying to move on from the attack. There is a light that penetrates her life, and the streets she walks on. It is “tall and wide” and has kept her scars from healing. The whole world is looking in on her and prying her for information until her “Shame” is driven out of hiding. 

 One of Larkin’s most interesting similes is in the next line. He describes her mind as being “open like a drawer knives.” It sits open all day long, ready to be picked and prodded by anyone who wants to dig in. At the same time, the drawer contains something dangerous, knives. It is not a safe place to be reaching one’s hand into. This speaks to the woman’s state of mind in the days, months and years after her rape. It has endlessly disrupted her life.   

Stanza 2 Explanation: 

                 In the first four lines of the second stanza the speaker begins by describing the woman’s physical state. She has spent years in the “Slums” and those years have “buried” her. She is trapped beneath the layers of decrepitude and now, her own history as well. The next line is also striking. The speaker states that he would not “dare / Console” her, even if he could. He feels a separation from this woman that is not completely resolved. This persists even after he comes to understand her attack better. 

The next lines begin the portion of the poem that has come under the greatest criticism from readers and scholars alike. Larkin, or perhaps only the speaker he is utilizing, dismisses the woman’s experience. He states that there is nothing to “be said / Except that suffering is exact.” He puts the blame not on the man who raped her, but on the desire he felt. 

 The “readings” the rapist took of life, his moral/spiritual opinion of what is right or wrong, was thrown off by his desire. 

 In the second half of the stanza the speaker turns to the rapist’s situation. He describes how the woman was “less deceived” than her attacker. He was under the impression that by raping her he could enter into “fulfillment desolate attic.” This would lead to some kind of satisfaction. It became clear to the man after he raped the young woman that his ascension to grander pleasures was not going to occur. He was “deceived” by his own desire