For Sydney Bechet - Larkin

For Sydney Bechet is a poem dedicated to Larkin's Jazz icon Syndey Bechet. Similar to Broadcast it encompasses many feelings of Larkin's towards jazz music and his passionate love for it. The rhythmic sibilant sounds that are used throughout the poem represent the flow of the music that Larkin experiences.

In the second stanza we get a sense of freedom through the represntation of New Orleans. It is presented as a vibrant and energetic place. There are vibrant words such as 'legendary' and 'everyone making love and going shares'. It presents the feelings of freedom in New Orleans.

Within the third stanza Larkin uses music as if it is enticing him on. 'Oh, play that thing!' uses an exclamation mark to really encompass the fact of how important this is to Larkin. The phrase is used in jazz clubs in New Orleans, it's as if everyone in this club has become excited by the music and this builds up the momentum in the poem. Excitement in this stanza is also used for a negative effect as well. Prostitutes
in this poem are described as 'Sporting-house girls like circus tigers (priced far above rubies)'. Larkin uses this quote as a euphemism for prostitutes. There seems as if there is a wildness contained in this women because they are limited in life purely down to being prostitutes. These prostitutes are also 'priced far above rubies'. This suggests that men prize these women more over rubies because they are prostitutes.

Within the fifth stanza, sexual references are also exploited by Larkin within his love for music. He says 'On me your voice falls as they say love should, like an enormous yes.' It suggests a rather orgasmic pleasure that Larkin is getting from the music through the 'enormous yes'. His love for Sydney Bechet's jazz music is presented as if it is a musical orgasm.

The overall theme of this poem is the exubernece and excitement of the night life of New Orleans. The rhyme scheme represents the flow of the music through the enjambent. We get the idea that music communicates to Larkin like a language without words.