The Importance of Elsewhere - Larkin

The Importance of Elsewhere is a poem by Larkin that conveys his contrasting feelings about his experiences at home and abroad in Ireland. The first stanza starts off with the comment 'Lonely in Ireland'. This conveys the feelings that Larkin feels isolated, lonely and cut-off. This links to the poem by Abse 'Leaving Cardiff', where Abse also feels sad about leaving his home town. We get the impression that through both of the poets poetry, they don't like this feeling of change or something new. This is reinforced through this poem where Larkin comments 'it was not home' conveying that Dublin is somewhere that he is not familiar with. However the views of Dublin that Larkin has changes towards the end of this stanza. He uses 'me' to put himself in situations and become more sociable with people. In a sense, he is becoming more involved in this 'elsewhere'. This is further reinforced at the end of this stanza where Larkin comments 'we were in touch' communicating the fact that he now feels connected with the Dublin community and he can now communicate with them. Maybe why Larkin feels so isolated is that he couldn't get past the language barrier and this is what made him feel so lonely and isolated. We also get the impression that Larkin thinks it is good not to fit in or be normal through the quote 'so on difference'. This is because no one actually knows what he is like, unlike back at home in Hull. So effectively, he can change his personality in order to make firends and prevent him from becoming lonely.

However, in stanza two we get more negative outlooks of this 'Elsewhere'. 'Their draughty streets' conveys an unwelcoming setting. The 'Archaic smell of dockland' conveys something old and forgotten. However, this also links to another Larkin poems such as 'Here' through the smell of the Hull fish town. This is familiar, so this reminds Larkin of home some more and possibly reassures him. We also get further negative smells in this stanza through the quote 'like a stable', this gives off connotations of horrid smells, animal like. Lastly we have the word 'dwindling' which represents something small, or far away. This could convey Larkin's inner feelings that he wants to go back home to Hull, however it is far away and this makes him feel lonely.


The last stanza gives us an insight into Larkin's views of England, especially his hometown, Hull. We get the impression that Larkin has to act differently around people, once he is back in England. 'Living in England has no such excuse'. This means that there is literally no excuse for Larkin to act differently around people as he already knows the majority of them. This stanza is more uncertain in its nature through the vague word 'it'. This poem also has a half-rhyme that conveys unease. It gives us a representation that Larkin really doesn't feel right wherever he goes in life. The last line of the last stanza reinforces to us how Larkin is feeling. 'Here no elsewhere underwrites my existence'. We get the feeling that Larkin is not able to be himself back at home. Other people have exprectations of what he is expected to do. He looses himself in his own existence. So therefore, the irony/paradox of this poem is that only elsewhere can Larkin truly feel alive himself. This links to other Larkin poems such as Here through the familiarity of the fishing docks, Dockery and Son through the theme of isolation, Mr Bleaney and Self's the Man. It also links to the Abse poem Leaving Cardiff as both Larkin and Abse seem to be resistant to change.