“A Record of Failure and Disappointment” is a reductive assessment of a poignant collection of poetry that explores the nature of existence and conflict , contrasts and contradictions of life. Larkin presents the experience in a mix of delicate tones (“your hands, tiny in all this air”), harsh criticism (“grim brides in headscarves”) and moving ambiguity (“Here is an existence without barriers / Face in the sun, not very talkative, outside." The complexity and variety of emotions presented in the collection make any attempt at a conclusive definition incomplete. Although the collection contains themes of failure and disappointment, both for the poet and for the world at large, this alone cannot describe the collection. Larkin presents the uncertainty and fickle nature of humanity and criticizes a culture that has lost its essence with unnatural "nylon gloves and jewelry substitutes." Warren Hope (1997) described Larkin as having "a human obsession with lost possibilities and potential." Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get an original essay Poems such as “Love Songs in Age”, “Home is So Sad” and “Faith Healing” justify the opinion according to which Pentecostal marriages considers failures and disappointments, especially the inability to satisfy and meet expectations and the disappointment that follows. Various considerations (such as love songs being unable to "resolve and satisfy" and thoughts about home being "a vision of the way things should be" but which have "fallen by the wayside a long time ago") reflect a poignant view that aspirations and expectations are often disappointed and expectations of what “should be” end in failure. However, “Faith Healing” is a significant example that illustrates the limitations of evaluating the collection as “a testimony of failure and disappointment.” The poem considers life's inability to satisfy and lost opportunities ("all they could have done if they had been loved.") A seemingly insignificant detail gives the poem's reflections greater importance than just disappointment – ​​“That nothing heals”. Through this phrase, Larkin considers an aspect of the inevitability of suffering in “Faith Healing” as in “Love Songs in Age,” thereby giving more meaning to other poems. The short and almost absurd situation of "As Bad as a Mile" considers that "failure spreads up the arm." / Sooner and Sooner” combining poignantly with the “hadn’t then” of “Love Songs in Age” to reflect disappointment as inevitable. Interpretations of "new critics" and "intentional errors" may see the idea of ​​"immense pain released" from a loveless life not as universal but as a theme in the context of the poem, considering the subjects of the poem as loveless or uncertain and therefore endure what “nothing cures”. The biographical context (along with the rest of the collection) suggests greater universality; Larkin perhaps uses the context of faith healing as an example of the human condition of having "less and less luck" and more inevitable disappointments and failures; the sense of inevitability presents life as uncompromising, just as other poems such as "MCMXIV" begin with hope and end with shattered expectations. Despite the tones of endless lack of accomplishment, Larkin presents a fragile hope in the collection; the invariable ambiguity in these cases leaves the extent of optimism up to interpretation. In “Faith Healing,” Larkin views reactions “as if akind of stupid/idiotic child in them survived.” Feminist critics may view this phrase as dismissive of women, with Larkin's usual sardonic approach criticizing "women" as the primary participants in "Faith Healing"; however, a tone of childish innocence and insecurity is also suggested and combines with the recurring ambiguity to suggest innocent hope. The ambiguity of the title poem is perhaps most significant; "A feeling of falling, like a shower of arrows / Sent out of sight, somewhere becoming rain." Imposing a negative interpretation might consider the more important phrase "sent out of sight", which might suggest that such hope is unattainable and the concentration and precision of the power of love in the arrows melts into rain, almost like a pathetic fallacy. Alternatively, the image may be one of fertility, virility and. great strength in the "rain"; the connotations of change can seem extremely encouraging, suggesting that Larkin remains convinced that love has the potential for transformation. Larkin's distant perspective is fundamental to the collection and is described as ". tenderly observant" by Sir John Betjeman Marxist and feminist critics may view Larkin's posthumous reputation as racist, sexist, and far-right by interpreting observations such as "the cut-price, urbane but simple crowd" and "the girls. / In fashion parodies” as worthy of these qualities. . However, the recurrence of such mild and muted criticism seems to refer to the broader social context of the collection in which his possible difficulty in accepting values ​​contradictory to those of his austere upbringing (particularly the influence of his father) appears. Larkin wrote the collection during a time of significant change in Britain – the 1950s and 1960s, as the nation was being rebuilt physically and socially after the devastation of two world wars. Recurring nuances of physical change in Britain, such as the negative connotations of the 'window showing a strip of building land', may support the qualities imposed on Larkin by his classification as a member of the 'Movement'. "The Movement" was a classification for a number of writers of the time such as Larkin, Kingsley Amis and John Wain, and is defined as "a reaction against the excesses of modernism" (Baldwick, 1991, p. 142) . However, “the Movement” cannot fully define Larkin. The combination of his distant perspective and slight disapproval seems to further show his personal isolation from his idealized views in poems such as "MCMXIV" and highlights his discomfort with certain aspects of society. Poems such as "MCMXIV" and "Nothing to Say" reflect Larkin's separation as they consider "life dies slowly" for "families close to the cobbles" and "such innocence". The perspective in many of his poems, including three observing from a train and others with a “cinematic quality” (Hope, 1997, p. 32), reflects his isolation and separation from society. This separation gives the collection a tentative character in which Larkin can often appear desolate, although his conflict between objective observation and the isolated perspective of a distant observer creates much of the ambiguity and mixing of emotions. Bleaney reflects Larkin's lifelong obsession: death. Death is not a prominent theme in the collection, although much is revealed about its related concerns. “[T]he way we live measures our own nature” refers to the desperate influence of isolation and fear.