I Remember, I Remember by Philip Larkin

I Remember, I Remember by Philip Larkin analysis shows a somewhat bitter look back at all of the things the speaker did not do in his childhood and youth. The view out a train window prompts memories, or rather, non-memories, for the speaker, who is suddenly reminded of Coventry, the place where he was born.

This study guide is written for students and teachers of English Literature, particularly those studying CCEA’s GCSE English Literature Identity Anthology. For more study guides from this anthology, check out the Identity page, or the list of poems in the series at the bottom of this guide.

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I Remember, I Remember

Coming up England by a different line
For once, early in the cold new year,
We stopped, and, watching men with number plates
Sprint down the platform to familiar gates,
“Why, Coventry!” I exclaimed. “I was born here.”

I leant far out, and squinnied for a sign
That this was still the town that had been ‘mine’
So long, but found I wasn’t even clear
Which side was which. From where those cycle-crates
Were standing, had we annually departed

For all those family hols? . . . A whistle went:
Things moved. I sat back, staring at my boots.
‘Was that,’ my friend smiled, ‘where you “have your roots”?’
No, only where my childhood was unspent,
I wanted to retort, just where I started:

By now I’ve got the whole place clearly charted.
Our garden, first: where I did not invent
Blinding theologies of flowers and fruits,
And wasn’t spoken to by an old hat.
And here we have that splendid family

I never ran to when I got depressed,
The boys all biceps and the girls all chest,
Their comic Ford, their farm where I could be
‘Really myself’. I’ll show you, come to that,
The bracken where I never trembling sat,

Determined to go through with it; where she
Lay back, and ‘all became a burning mist’.
And, in those offices, my doggerel
Was not set up in blunt ten-point, nor read
By a distinguished cousin of the mayor,

Who didn’t call and tell my father There
Before us, had we the gift to see ahead –
‘You look as though you wished the place in Hell,’
My friend said, ‘judging from your face.’ ‘Oh well,
I suppose it’s not the place’s fault,’ I said.

‘Nothing, like something, happens anywhere.’

What is 'I Remember, I Remember' about?

Summary

“I Remember, I Remember” is a poem in which the speaker recalls his childhood and adolescence in the city of Coventry. The poem begins with the speaker taking a train journey up through England. The train stops and the speaker observes people rushing down the platform at a station. The speaker is shocked to realise that he is back in Coventry, where he was born.

The rest of the poem is a series of memories, or more accurately, non-memories. The speaker reflects on his childhood, noting all the happy and fond memories he did not have: discoveries in the garden, family friends, and adolescent sexual experiences. Larkin’s bitter and cynical tone reveals the unhappiness of his childhood, but at the end, the speaker acknowledges that it wasn’t so much the fault of Coventry; his childhood would have been as negative in any place.

Context of 'I Remember, I Remember' by Philip Larkin

Philip Larkin's life, education and career

Philip Larkin was an English poet, novelist and librarian. He was born on 9th August 1922 in Coventry, England and died on 2nd December 1985 in Hull, England.

He is known for his frank, stark and often bleakly pessimistic view of the world, as well as his skilful use of language. His poems explore themes of loneliness, disillusionment, and mortality.

Larkin was educated at home by his mother and sister, Kitty, until the age of eight. After this, he attended Coventry’s King Henry VIII Junior School. Despite his reclusive and isolated early years, he made good friendships at school. Later, he attended St John’s College, Oxford University, where he became interested in jazz music and started writing poetry. After graduation, he worked as a librarian at the University of Leicester, then spent five years living in Belfast and working at Queen’s University library. In 1955 he became librarian at the University of Hull, where he spent the rest of his career.

Social and literary influences on Larkin

Larkin’s poetry was influenced by his social, historical, and cultural context. He lived through the Second World War and its aftermath, which left a lasting impact on him and his generation. He was part of a group of post-war poets known as “The Movement,” who rejected the modernist experimentation of earlier poets in favour of more traditional forms and language. Larkin’s poems often reflect a sense of disillusionment with modern society and a longing for a simpler, more stable world.

Larkin was also influenced by his reading and personal experiences. He was an avid reader of T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden, and other modernist poets, as well as of novels and detective stories. He was also interested in visual art, and his poems often contain vivid images and descriptions. Larkin’s personal life was marked by relationships with several women, including his longtime partner Monica Jones, and his poems often explore themes of love, sex, and relationships.

This lovely Guardian page on Philip Larkin’s photography shows another dimension to Larkin: he is not only a poet but a photographer and artist.

If you enjoy Larkin’s cynical tone and self-depreciating style, check out ThinkLit’s study guide on “Wild Oats”:

Context of 'I Remember, I Remember'

“I Remember, I Remember” is a poem that deals with memory and nostalgia, and was first published in 1954 as part of Larkin’s second collection, “The Less Deceived”.

Larkin’s poem is inspired by a poem by Thomas Hood, also called ‘I Remember, I Remember’.

Thomas Hood's poem

Thomas Hood (1799-1845) was an English poet and novelist whose poem, ‘I Remember, I Remember’ seems to be the the inspiration for Larkin’s poem. Despite the identical titles, Hood’s poem is very different in tone. Here is the opening stanza:

I Remember, I Remember by Thomas Hood

I remember, I remember,
The house where I was born,
The little window where the sun
Came peeping in at morn;
He never came a wink too soon,
Nor brought too long a day,
But now, I often wish the night
Had borne my breath away!

Hood’s poem explores fond childhood memories. It provides Larkin with a spark, but there the similarities end. Larkin’s cynical ‘unspent’ childhood non-memory is in complete contrast to the fond reminiscing of Hood’s poem.

Line-by-line analysis

Title: I Remember, I Remember

Analysis of the title ‘I Remember, I Remember’ begins with the obvious reference to the Thomas Hood poem which forms a spark of inspiration for this poem.
The repetition of the phrase ‘I Remember’ creates the echo of memory which is intended given the key theme of memories.
In some readings, there is also a childish tone in the repetition. It is like a child exclaiming.

Stanza 1

Coming up England by a different line

The poem begins with the speaker’s journey through England, suggesting a departure from the usual route or perspective.
The present continuous verb ‘Coming’ opens the poem and reflects the movement of the train.
Larkin uses enjambment to heighten both the sense of the movement of the train and the conversational tone.

For once, early in the cold new year,

The poem sets the scene at a specific time, the beginning of the year, possibly suggesting a reflective or introspective mood.
The adjective ‘cold’ reflects both the weather and also the speaker’s memories of his childhood in Coventry.

We stopped, and, watching men with number plates

The plural pronoun ‘we’ tells us that the speaker is travelling with a companion. Indeed, the companion speaks later in the poem.
Commas are used to fracture this line, creating pauses (caesurae) to interrupt the flow of the line. These pauses reflect the surprise the speaker feels at realising where he is.
The ‘men with number plates’ perhaps reflect the busyness of the station and the continuance of normal life for those who live in Coventry. This is enhanced by enjambment which runs this line straight into the next.

Sprint down the platform to familiar gates,

The full rhyme of ‘plates’ and ‘gates’ adds speed to these lines, reflecting the busyness of the station, and also building pace to the speaker’s realisation of where he is.
‘Sprint’ is a very active verb, again increasing the speed of the line.

"Why, Coventry!" I exclaimed. "I was born here."

Direct speech adds immediacy here, helping the reader to feel the same surprise that the speaker feels.
The sense of surprise is enhanced by the exclamation mark after ‘Coventry!’ and the verb ‘exclaimed’.
The rhyme of ‘here’ and ‘year’ creates structure to this verse.

Stanza 2

I leant far out, and squinnied for a sign

The speaker is initially fascinated by the place and eager to see as much of Coventry as possible by leaning ‘far out’.
‘Squinnied’ is a colloquial verb for ‘took a good look’, adding to the conversational, informal tone.
The line has a nice parallel structure with a verb on either side of the conjunction ‘and’.

That this was still the town that had been 'mine'

‘mine’ initially seems like a positive, affirming pronoun, suggesting the speaker feels a positive bond with Coventry, however, the inverted commas around the word imply a further examination is needed. The speaker is using a sarcastic tone, suggesting that he does not feel much sense of identification with the town at all.
The first two lines of this verse follow iambic pentameter perfectly, building rhythm here and a sense of story telling.

So long, but found I wasn't even clear

The conjunction ‘but’ takes the poem in a different direction, showing that this place is not as familiar as the speaker initially believed.
The adverb ‘even’ intensifies the speaker’s surprise that the place where he spent so many years is unfamiliar to him.
The caesura in this line creates a pause, reflecting the speaker’s hesitation and uncertainty.

Which side was which. From where those cycle-crates

‘Those’ implies the speaker is describing in the moment what he can see out of the train’s window.
The full stop in the middle of the line creates a long pause, signally a shift: from his point, the speaker enters a different state of recollection. Instead of remembering his childhood, he spirals into a negative series of thoughts in which he describes all the things that did not happen.

Were standing, had we annually departed

The speaker uses the question, ‘had we …?’ to further highlight the shift into ‘recollections’ that are, in fact, not accurate, but rather criticisms of the childhood he would have wished for himself.
The repetition of the ‘d’ sound in ‘departed’ and ‘standing’ creates a sense of rhythm and continuity.

Stanza 3

For all those family hols? . . . A whistle went:

Larkin splits the question across two verses, intensifying the effect of the enjambment. The run-on lines across stanzas pair neatly with the whistle blowing and the train departing from the station. Larkin skillfully creates the movement and the increasing speed of the train with the enjambment and the series of short phrases which follow.
Ellipsis in the middle of the line signals a further shift into non-memories. While the train moves off in real-time, the speaker’s thoughts drift further away from reality, highlighted by the ellipsis.
The alliteration of ‘whistle went’ highlights the sound effect of the whistle and the sense of movement in the train.

Things moved. I sat back, staring at my boots.

There is a stark contrast between the movement outside the window (‘Things moved’) compared to the stillness of the speaker (‘I sat back, staring’).
The image of the speaker staring at their boots implies introspection or contemplation.

'Was that,' my friend smiled, 'where you "have your roots"?'

Again, the use of direct speech adds a sense of immediacy.
The speaker’s friend asks a question, prompting the speaker to reflect on their connection to Coventry.
The use of quotation marks highlights the friend’s colloquial words, and the verb ‘smiled’ highlights the innocent, friendly nature of the question, contrasting with the unspoken reply of the speaker in the next line.
The full rhyme of ‘boots’ and ‘roots’ in consecutive lines creates a strong sound, perhaps echoing the rhythm and movement of the train.

No, only where my childhood was unspent,

The speaker denies having roots in Coventry but acknowledges that it is where their childhood was ‘unspent,’ suggesting a significant period of their life.
Wordplay is used in the phrase ‘childhood was unspent’, playing on the idea of investing time or experience, implying that the speaker’s childhood was not fully realised or enjoyed in Coventry.
The reply of ‘no’ is unspoken, shown by the lack of speech marks, confirmed in the next line by ‘I wanted to retort’.
Not only was his childhood ‘unspent’ but his reply is unspoken, suggesting the speaker often fails to open up or seize opportunities.

I wanted to retort, just where I started:

The speaker disconnects the idea of having roots from the idea of having spent time in a place. There is a strong sense of disconnection here, highlighted by the caesura in the middle of the line.

Stanza 4

By now I've got the whole place clearly charted.

The speaker asserts that they now have a clear understanding or map of Coventry, suggesting a sense of closure or reversal of the uncertainty they experienced in the second verse.
The phrase ‘clearly charted’ metaphorically implies that the speaker has come to terms with their past and their connection to Coventry. They have fully closed the book, confirming the unpleasantness of their childhood. They do not allow for any flexibility in their interpretation of their childhood.

Our garden, first: where I did not invent

The speaker recalls their childhood garden, where they did not engage in imaginative play or create elaborate fantasies.
Negation is used by the speaker to highlight what they did not do in the garden, suggesting a lack of creative exploration or expression.
The colon after ‘first’ highlights the sense of a list forming, as if there is a rant underway.

Blinding theologies of flowers and fruits,

The speaker reflects on typical childhood innocence and simplicity, which plays on poetry that romanticises nature. The tone is heavy with irony: clearly, the speaker did no such thing as a child.
The metaphor ‘Blinding theologies’ implies exaggerated or overly complex interpretations of nature, elevating it to god-like status.
Alliteration of ‘flowers and fruits’ adds to the rhetorical high of the line, adding further irony to the tone.

And wasn't spoken to by an old hat.

The metaphor “old hat” represents tradition or authority, suggesting a lack of influence or guidance from elders, highlighting the speaker’s criticism of the lack of ‘normal’ childhood experiences of being surrounded by family and supportive older relatives offering guidance.

And here we have that splendid family

After the full stop, the speaker transitions to discussing a fictional neighbouring family, describing them as ‘splendid.’
The word ‘splendid’ conjures a positive, idealised image of the family.
The phrase ‘And here we have …’ suggests the speaker is in the middle of a long, enthusiastic speech, pointing out locations as if a tour guide.

Stanza 5

I never ran to when I got depressed,

In this line, the fictional element is the family from whom the speaker sought comfort. The fact or undisputed memory is that the speaker got depressed. This further highlights the negative memories of his childhood.

The boys all biceps and the girls all chest,

The speaker describes the physical attributes of these ‘friends’ in a somewhat mocking tone, highlighting his envy of those with perfect bodies and perfect childhoods.
Alliteration is used in the repetition of the “b” sound in “boys” and “biceps” to create emphasis and rhythm.

Their comic Ford, their farm where I could be

The speaker mentions a Ford car and a farm, indicating symbolic elements of positive family life and upbringing.
Alliteration in ‘Ford’ and ‘farm’ highlight the sarcasm and negativity of the speaker’s tone.

'Really myself'. I'll show you, come to that,

The phrase “I’ll show you” reflects the speaker’s determination to demonstrate their identity.
For a second time, the speaker uses inverted commas to highlight his mocking tone. He makes fun of those who ‘find themselves’ in such positive and wholesome ways, most likely out of jealousy.
The intensifier ‘come to that’ highlights the negative, rant-like tone of the verse.
Punctuation fractures this line, adding to the conversational tone.

The bracken where I never trembling sat,

The speaker describes a specific location in their mind, the bracken, where they did not experience a sexual encounter, typical of romance novels. This comes across as an image the speaker has imagined many times but never played out in real life.

Stanza 6

Determined to go through with it; where she

The speaker has moved toward in time in their ‘memories’ from early childhood fantasies of playing with flowers in the garden to adolescence and sexual encounters. The theme of growing up and coming of age emerges at this stage of the poem.

Lay back, and 'all became a burning mist'.

Here, the speaker’s sarcastic tone reaches a peak in both the mocking of typical romance novels as well as the mocking of his own lack of adolescent experiences.
The metaphor “a burning mist” suggests the powerful, overwhelming sensations of this encounter.

And, in those offices, my doggerel

The speaker reflects on their own amateur poetry, referred to colloquially as ‘doggerel,’ indicating that their early attempts at writing were unrefined or lacking in sophistication.
A self-deprecating tone emerges here. The speaker’s criticisms turn from the place of Coventry to a more introspective criticism of the speaker’s own skill.
The demonstrative adjective ‘those’ suggests that in his mind, the speaker is still offering a tour (of sorts) of Coventry.

Was not set up in blunt ten-point, nor read

The speaker’s poetry was not presented in a formal or polished manner, as indicated by the phrase ‘blunt ten-point.’

By a distinguished cousin of the mayor,

The speaker reveals another resentment: no one helped him up the ladder. His family was not well connected, so he had no help in his career.
The mention of the ‘cousin of the mayor’ highlights class distinctions and social connections which were all off-limits to the speaker.

Stanza 7

Who didn't call and tell my father There

Again, the use of negative verbs highlights the bitter tone of the speaker.

Before us, had we the gift to see ahead -

The speaker seems to recreate the voice of this fictitious ‘cousin of the major’ in the syntax of ‘There before us, had we the first to see ahead-‘, which further adds to the sarcastic, bitter tone.

'You look as though you wished the place in Hell,'

The speaker is interrupted here by his companion, who has picked up on both the speaker’s facial expression and his silence. Remember, the speaker has not answered his companion’s previous question of ‘Was that where you “have your roots”?’

My friend said, 'judging from your face.' 'Oh well,

The speaker responds to their friend’s observation with resignation and acceptance, suggesting that they do not blame the town or location for their feelings.
This shift from the anger of his thoughts to the acceptance of what he verbalises suggests that the speaker recognises the need to let go of past bitterness, or to at least direct the anger away from Coventry and towards something more appropriate.
The speaker finally replies to his friend.

I suppose it's not the place's fault,' I said.

There is a sense of reluctance in ‘I suppose’. The speaker’s resignation is, at best neutral in tone. This is not an acceptance of his childhood, but rather the acceptance that fault does not lie with Coventry. Again, the logical conclusion is that fault lies elsewhere, not that there is no fault to find. It is still a very negative conclusion.

Stanza 8

'Nothing, like something, happens anywhere.'

The poem ends with a profound statement that suggests that significant events or experiences can occur anywhere.
“Nothing, like something” highlights the paradoxical nature of existence, where moments of importance can arise unexpectedly.
The line is fractured by commas creating pauses to allow the big ideas to sink in.
In separating this line from the previous stanza, the speaker leaves it isolated, making it more of a conclusion and giving it a sense of importance.

Analysis of form, structure and language

Verse structure

‘I Remember, I Remember’ comprises seven quintains (five-line verses) and a single-line verse at the end.

Up until the very end of the poem, the verse structure is very regular.

Rhythm and rhyme

The regular verse structure is contrasted with the irregular rhyme scheme. Larkin embeds rhyming couplets, for example plates/gates, sign/mine, boots/roots. He also creates rhyming couplets across stanzas, for example in started/charted. But there is no repeating pattern of rhyme from one stanza to another.

When written in letters, it is easy to see the irregularity of the rhyme scheme:

abccb aabcd effed defgh iihjj hklmn nmllm n

Perhaps this reflects the spontaneity of the speaker’s encounter with Coventry and his struggle to align his own childhood with more traditional notions of what childhood should be.

Conversational tone

Larkin’s use of language in “I Remember, I Remember” is characterised by its conversational tone. The speaker addresses a friend or companion, the person with whom he is travelling on the train.

The use of direct speech and exclamation mark in “Why, Coventry!” along with the question mark and ellipsis in stanza three create a sense of informality.

The listener responds early in the poem: ‘Was that,’ my friend smiled, ‘where you “have your roots”?’ creating the feel of friendship and informality. Later, in an equally conversational tone, the speaker responds to his companion’s comment about wishing ‘the place in Hell’ with the highly informal ‘Oh well, I suppose …’

The use of colloquialisms such as “squinnied” and “doggerel” adds to the informal, conversational tone of the poem.

Negative vocabulary in 'I Remember, I Remember'

Larkin repeats a series of negative qualifiers: no, not, never, wasn’t, nor, didn’t, nothing. These negative terms all speak to the poem’s negative tone: the speaker lists all of the fun, memorable and positive activities of childhood, none of which were his experiences.

Imagery

Larkin also employs vivid imagery to convey pictures of childhood. In the second stanza, he uses the image of cycle-crates to evoke memories of family holidays; holidays enjoyed by others, not himself. The mention of ‘the boys all biceps and the girls all chest’ creates a cliche of adolescence, emphasised by the repeated phrase structure, the alliterative ‘b’ sound and the rhyme of depressed/chest.

In the third stanza, Larkin employs sensory imagery to describe a family’s garden, with “theologies of flowers and fruits” conjuring the idea of a young boy lost in thought among the plants, again emphasised with the alliterative ‘f’ sound. The mention of the “splendid family” and the bracken also evoke a sense of the natural world and the countryside, contrasting with the urban environment of Coventry. These images embody the desire, not just of the teenaged speaker who did not have his first sexual encounter in a neighbour’s bracken, but also the unlived experience of having a neighbouring family to be ‘really myself’. The bitterness exuded in these phrases paints a picture of a young man isolated, wishing to be included. Finally, the burning mist that the girl becomes in Larkin’s memory is a powerful image that conveys a sense of desire and longing.

Themes in 'I Remember, I Remember'

Identity and belonging

Throughout the poem, the speaker grapples with questions of identity and belonging, particularly in relation to their childhood town of Coventry. They question their connection to the place and wrestle with feelings of disorientation and detachment upon returning.

Disillusionment

The poem depicts the speaker’s growing disillusionment and sense of disconnection from their childhood town. They struggle to reconcile their real memories with the idea of what a childhood should be. The speaker also feels alienated from the place they spent so much of their childhood, failing to recognise the layout of the station or the town itself.

Reflection and self-discovery

Through their reflections on Coventry and their list of idealised childhood experiences, the speaker undergoes a process of self-discovery and introspection. The poem serves as a means for the speaker to confront their own identity and personal history. In the end, the speaker realises that the town of Coventry can’t be held responsible for his bad childhood, but rather, it would have been as bad anywhere.

Quiz on 'I Remember, I Remember'

I Remember, I Remember by Philip Larkin

Test your knowledge of the poem 'I Remember, I Remember' by Philip Larkin.

Comprehension Questions:

What is the speaker’s initial reaction upon arriving in Coventry?
How does the speaker feel about their childhood town throughout the poem?
Describe the significance of the phrase “Coming up England by a different line.”
What do the “men with number plates” represent in the poem?
How does the speaker’s perception of Coventry change over the course of the poem?
Explain the significance of the line “Why, Coventry!” I exclaimed. “I was born here.”
How does the speaker describe their childhood experiences in Coventry?
What emotions does the speaker convey in the lines “The boys all biceps and the girls all chest”?
Reflect on the final line of the poem: “Nothing, like something, happens anywhere.” What do you think the speaker is trying to convey with this statement?
Compare and contrast ‘I Remember, I Remember’ by Philip Larkin with one other from the CCEA Identity Anthology which also explores the theme of childhood.

Other poems from the CCEA Conflict Anthology to pair with 'Poem Name'

Catrin by Gillian Clarke

I Remember, I Remember can be compared to Catrin by Gillian Clarke, which explores the complex relationship between a mother and daughter as the daughter grows up and asserts her independence. Both poems explore childhood and growing up. The poems are very different in their tone, but both paint powerful pictures and strong emotions.

In Mrs Tilscher's Class by Carol Ann Duffy

In Mrs Tilscher’s Class by Carol Ann Duffy explores the idea of growing up and leaving childhood behind. Both poems use imagery and memories of childhood to convey a sense of nostalgia for a time that can never be recaptured. Similarly, I Remember, I Remember deals with the speaker’s complex relationship with his childhood home, as he struggles to reconcile his memories of the place with the reality of what it has become.

Docker by Seamus Heaney

Finally, the theme of identity and the impact of surroundings is explored in Docker by Seamus Heaney, which looks at the lives of working-class dockers and the role that their environment plays in shaping their identities. Like I Remember, I Remember, Docker reflects on the relationship between identity and place.

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