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'Ambulances': Larkin's Memento Mori

 How is Mortality Presented in Larkin's 'Ambulances'? 

By Oliver

'Ambulances' offers the reader an insight into Larkin's complex views and emotions on death. In this poem the ambulances that 'thread loud noons of cities' act as a memento mori for all who see them, a morbid reminder of 'the solving emptiness // That lies just under all we do'. Throughout the poem Larkin raises the question, what is the point of life - of 'fashions' and 'families' and 'dinners' and 'the exchange of love' - if, sooner or later, we will all be 'visited' by death? 


Throughout the poem Larkin comments on the universality of death, it is the one thing that unites everyone. The idea of ambulances that will eventually visit 'all streets' and 'come to rest at any kerb' is a metaphor for how everyone will eventually die. Larkin's depiction of death is deeply impersonal, the ambulances do not return the horrified 'glances' of the onlookers, they simply absorb them. Although the ambulances are personified, coming to 'rest' at streets, they are entirely apathetic reflecting the indiscriminate nature of death. Death could 'come to rest at any kerb', the determiner 'any' showing the randomness of death, even 'children' are not safe they end up violently 'strewn on steps' - the soft sibilance here giving the impression of the children being weak; helpless against the power of death. This repetition of 's' sounds here also mimics the auditory effect of whispering, a technique that is weaved throughout the poem - '...sudden shut...','...sense the solving...'- this illustrates the morbid fascination that people have towards death. Mortality is taboo, something so 'permanent and blank and true' that most people refuse to discuss it in anything other than hushed whispers. These hushed whispers display the perverse curiosity that we all have surrounding death, people only 'glance' at the ambulances, petrified to look at them directly. And when people do discuss, it is with a twisted sense of selfishness, 'poor soul // They whisper at their own distress', the dead do not need consoling, it is the living who are plagued with the crushing weight of their own mortality. 


An Ominous tone, accentuated through Larkin's use meter, underlies the poem. through the rigid Iambic pentameter Larkin creates a sense of solemn foreboding. The slow, even pulse of the poem could be said to reflect the sombre 4/4 beat of a funeral march, which only helps to build upon the already established themes of death - underneath the people in the poem's lives is the steady rhythm of a funeral march, the inevitability of death which 'lies just under all we do'. This meter could also be said to mimic the beating of a heart, throughout the poem there is an even pulse, representing life, however eventually the poem must end - the heart must stop. This represents the suddenness of death; the rhythm of the poem is steady - it does not slow. This reflects how quickly life could be snatched away from us.  


during the last two stanzas of the poem Larkin begins to question the impact that being aware of own mortality has on our lives. Larkin comments on how our 'families', 'fashions' and 'love' will 'loosen' at the end of our lives. Here the fricative alliteration of 'families and fashions' could be seen as mocking, Larkin questions how we can possibly care about things as artificial and ultimately meaningless as 'fashions' when faced with our own mortality. by pairing 'families' with 'fashions' Larkin also demeans the love and connections we make on earth, at the end of our lives Larkin says we will 'lie unreachable inside a room' a metaphor that shows even though we may have fostered strong relationships when we were alive, we are 'unreachable' in death, like life these relationships are transient, we will die alone. 


To conclude, in 'Ambulances' Larkin examines how the inevitability of our own death is something that 'lies just under all we do' even though we distract ourselves with 'dinners' and 'fashions' we will all eventually be 'unreachable' and nothing that we have done when we were alive will matter. Larkin questions how we can live ,with a knowledge of death that 'dulls to a distance all we are'. 




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