Mr Bleaney - Larkin

Mr Bleaney is a poem about the persona who is trying to imagine the lifestyle of the person called Mr Bleaney who rented the hotel room before himself. The persona is renting a room which used to belong to Mr Bleaney. There is a ballad rhythm to this poem in which every other word rhymes. This signifies the simplistic repetitive lifestyle of not just the persona but Mr Bleaney as well.

Mr Bleaney is represented as having a boring and repetitive lifestyle through when he is 'at the bodies, till they moved him'. We get the sense that Mr Bleaney had to usually be kicked out which represents the view that he had nothing better to do than just sit around and do nothing. The representation of his room signifies his personality. The curtains 'are thin and frayed' which represents something rather cheap, meagre and neglected about the curtains and Mr Bleaney himself. The representation of the setting is effective symbolism of Mr Bleaney's life. His room overlooks 'a strip of building land'. This gives us an idea of an ugly and desolate setting. The 'bed, upright chair, sixty-watt bulb, no hook' gives a very simplistic description of Mr Bleaney's bedroom. It seems as if the description is similar to that of a prison cell. This room is a metaphor for the life and aspirations of Mr Bleaney. The persona describes 'stuffing my ears with cotton wool'. We get a sense of nothingness through these actions. When you lie still you begin to think and when you think you think of your place in life. So Mr Bleaney would of been lying there thinking of how useless he actually is as a human being. We get the sense that Mr Bleaney was always looking for hope in life. The fact that he was always 'plugging at the four aways' suggests that he betted on the football pools. Like the lottery, it gives off hope though very vague and almost pathetic. We get an insight into the desperation of Mr Bleaney's life.

The last two stanzas act as the epiphany and philosophical shift to this poem, that the persona is actually no better off than Mr Bleaney himself because they are both in the exact same situation. Throughout the majority of this poem the persona seems very judgemental towards Mr Bleaney, however he doesn't know the inner feelings of Mr Bleaney at all. The fact that the
persona ends this poem with 'I don't know' adds to his uncertain future. The persona and Mr Bleaney are exact equals even though throughout the majority of this poem the persona is very judgemental we never get to know much about the persona himself. This is down to the fear of what people will think about the persona if he adopts the same ways as Mr Bleaney. The main theme of this poem seems to be down to this idea of snobbishness.