Send No Money

This poem talks about the way perspectives change over time, particularly how when you are young you want to be old, but when you are old you want to be young. It also looks at the way different people view and do life, whether you just learn about life or you truly participate and experience the good and bad, as Larkin wishes to learn, instead of participating. 

Stanza 1:

• 'fobbed' links to a clock.
• 'teach me the way things go' shows how you are naive when young, but Larkin wanted to learn, to know suggesting he is more intellectual than the other 'lads'. 
• 'lads...where itching to have a bash' shows how the persona is different from other people as they are more about experiencing life, 'bash' suggesting it is a physical thing, whereas he would rather take a back seat and learn.
• 'it and finding out clash' shows how you can't both learn about life and experience it which seems 'unfair'. 

Stanza 2:

• 'he patted my head' shows how he is inferior, younger and naive, and also suggests he lacks control. 
• 'no green in your eye' could link to money, linking to the title 'send no money' showing that he would rather have youth than money, and suggesting money comes with age. 
• 'sit her and watch' shows he is not participating.
• 'hail of occurence clobber life out' connotes life equals pain and this violence suggests it is better to not be involved. 
• 'to a shape no one sees' suggests no one can truly understand life, no matter what you can't learn from it. 
• 'oh yes please' shows he still wants to learn about life, from the side lines, but it waill never happen shown as he just 'wait's. 

Stanza 3:

• 'half life is over now' shows how time and past, and 'over now' suggests it was something that was endured. 
• 'full face' shows he is old and has no more room to grow and he doesnt like that and demonstrating that he hasnt been able to escape life or time by sitting back. 
• 'dark mornings' is pessimistic, suggesting even the beginnings are dark, there is no hope. 
• 'bent in' shows how life has still damaged him. 
• 'what does it prove?sod all' shows he has learnt and gained nothing. 
• 'spent youth' shows youth is finite and he has realised this. 
• 'tracing the trite untransferable' suggests it was useless and he was chasing something unatainable and unchangeable. 
• 'truss-advertisment, truth' could mean truth holds advertisments together as they keep what people give away about life limited  because there is nothing more. Alternatively it could mean advertisments hold the truth together, or the truths as we see them because poeple pass on adverts of their own truths but it is soon seen these are merely adverts not real, life is wrongly advertised. (truss is a medical thing that holds wounds together, holds stuff in).