Wild Oats

 In 'Wild Oats' the persona looks back, regretfully at his younger years, fantasizing not over his ex-girlfriend, but her better looking friend, as he lusts after his idea of the perfect woman, a 'English rose'. In the poem Larkin talks about wanting to sleep with lots of people, in his view a right of passage for a male, as he objectifies women with his dry sarcastic tone. 

Stanza 1:

• 'Twenty years ago' shows he is reminiscing over the past.
• 'bosomy English rose' demonstrates Larkin objectifying women, reinforced by the fact neither women are given a name throughout. 
• 'friend in specs i could talk to' suggests Larkin is not confident, or that the other girl is clearly out of his league and at the time he accepted this, but looking back he rejects this. It also shows how Larkin cared about what socially, was considered ugly (specs), and defined his girlfriend by this. 
• 'faces in those days sparked the whole shooting-match off' suggests people used to be more superficial, and women were considered birds, things men have power over. 'Sparked' denotes physical passion, suggesting that is all women are good for, and 'shooting match' links to old fashioned british men, reflecting the out dated sexist viewpoint. 
• 'But it was the friend i took out', 'but' changes the tone showing the regret. 

Stanza 2:

• 'gave a ten-guinea ring' suggests women are bought.
• 'i got it back in the end' suggests he is not surprised it didnt work out, and almost wanted it to. 
• 'wrote over four hundred letters' demonstrates he did care but he feels now it was a waste of time, wished he didnt care. 
• 'unknown to the clergy' implies he was trying to hide his love, he was embarrassed of her because of her looks. 
• 'I met beautiful twice' shows how women to him were defined by their looks, not their personality or even their name. 
• 'she was trying both times (so i thought) not to laugh' demonstrate his paranoia around good looking people, that he feels below them but so wants them. 

Stanza 3:

• 'Parting' suggests breakup was inevitable. 
• 'rehearsals' shows how he could never commits to the real thing, it wasnt real love he felt for her, he was just practicing. 
• 'bored to love' reinforces the fact he didnt really love her, just found her boring. Also connotes how Larkin didnt want to love, he didnt care about it, he just cared about looks and passion. 
• 'useful to get that learnt' shows she was just a mistake of his youth. 
• 'two snaps' which he keeps with him shows how he is still regretful of it now and can't let the 'bosomy rose' go.
• 'unlucky charm' shows how his obsession with this ideal women is messing up his life because now no one can compete with her.