Talking in Bed - Larkin

After many of Larkin's poems being connected to the theme of a journey either through an actual journey or a journey through life and death, Talking in Bed is different. Talking in Bed is in fact about the enduring love between a middle-aged married couple. Through this poem we see that the two's relationship has lasted a long time and that they are just simply lying with one another being nice to each other.

Words in the first stanza such as 'easiest' and 'emblem' suggest something easy and comforting about this couples relationship with one another, that there is no awkwardness through the silence between them. There are also lots of contrasts within this poem as well. Such as 'talking' and 'silently'. This gives opposing ideas of communicating and also not communicating as well. Other examples include 'uneasy and 'unrest' that are linked contrasts through the rhyme scheme.

During the second stanza we get this sense of the wider world that is outside of the couples bedroom window. Larkin is showing us just how small and tiny this couple seem in such a big world. We also get the philosophical meaning of this poem during the middle instead of the end. This in itself, is a contrast to the other poems we have read by Larkin so far in that in the other poems the philosophical meaning tends to be at the end. The use of the philosophical meaning of 'isolation' is used in this poem. Linking this to the context of the poem, Larkin is suggesting the view that isolation and silence between this couple is a positive thing. That they have been in love so long that there is no need for them to talk with one another anymore because they understand what each of them are thinking anyway, silence between them is what they like, when they can think.
 This links in well to the poem by Larkin 'Here'.

The overall structure of this poem seems to go in a cycle. The poem moves from two people in bed, to the weather, to the landscape and back to the relationship. This suggest to the reader that nothing new has happened in the outer world, that no matter what happens in their relationship the world will always stay the same. The overall structure of this poem is similar to that of 'Ambulances' where again we have a same beginning and end.