Philip Larkin's "MCMXIV" looks back on England in the year 1914, creating an evocative snapshot of life just before the horrors of the First World War. Young men line up to enlist in the army, children play, and the countryside is covered with a sleepy haze. Nothing in this picture suggests the terrible loss of life taking shape on the horizon, and that's the poem's point: this pre-WWI world was a more innocent place that would soon be irrevocably changed. "MCMXIV" is thus a kind of monument to loss: of individual lives, of a generation, and perhaps even a way of life and/or relating to one's country. Larkin published the poem in his 1964 collection The Whitsun Weddings.

• Read the full text of “MCMXIV”

• “MCMXIV” Summary

• “MCMXIV” Themes

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    World War I’s Destructive Effect on English Society

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-32

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “MCMXIV”

  • Lines 1-4

    Those long uneven ...
    ... or Villa Park,

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 5-8

    The crowns of ...
    ... Bank Holiday lark;

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 9-11

    And the shut ...
    ... farthings and sovereigns,

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 12-16

    And dark-clothed children ...
    ... open all day;

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 17-21

    And the countryside ...
    ... wheat's restless silence;

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 22-24

    The differently-dressed servants ...
    ... dust behind limousines;

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 25-28

    Never such innocence, ...
    ... Without a word—

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 28-32

    the men ...
    ... such innocence again.

    

    

    

    

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• “MCMXIV” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Alliteration

    

    

    

    

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    Where alliteration appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “long,” “lines”
    • Line 9: “shut shops”
    • Line 12: “clothed”
    • Line 13: “Called,” “kings,” “queens”
    • Line 14: “tin”
    • Line 15: “cocoa,” “twist”
    • Line 17: “countryside,” “caring”
    • Line 19: “flowering,” “fields”
    • Line 22: “differently-dressed”
    • Line 23: “huge houses”
    • Line 28: “Without,” “word”
    • Line 31: “Lasting,” “little,” “longer”

  • Enjambment

    

    

    

    

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    Where enjambment appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-2: “lines / Standing”
    • Lines 2-3: “patiently / As”
    • Lines 3-4: “outside / The”
    • Lines 5-6: “sun / On”
    • Lines 6-7: “faces / Grinning”
    • Lines 7-8: “all / An”
    • Lines 9-10: “bleached / Established”
    • Lines 12-13: “play / Called”
    • Lines 14-15: “advertisements / For”
    • Lines 15-16: “pubs / Wide”
    • Lines 18-19: “over / With”
    • Lines 19-20: “fields / Shadowing”
    • Lines 20-21: “lines / Under”
    • Lines 22-23: “servants / With”
    • Lines 27-28: “past / Without”
    • Lines 28-29: “men / Leaving”

  • Irony

    

    

    

    

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    Where irony appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-8: “Those long uneven lines / Standing as patiently / As if they were stretched outside / The Oval or Villa Park, / The crowns of hats, the sun / On moustached archaic faces / Grinning as if it were all / An August Bank Holiday lark;”
    • Lines 28-31: “the men / Leaving the gardens tidy, / The thousands of marriages, / Lasting a little while longer:”

  • Repetition

    

    

    

    

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    Where repetition appears in the poem:

    • Line 3: “As if”
    • Line 5: “The,” “the”
    • Line 7: “as if”
    • Line 9: “And,” “ the,” “the”
    • Line 11: “The”
    • Line 12: “And”
    • Line 14: “The”
    • Line 15: “and the”
    • Line 17: “And”
    • Line 18: “The”
    • Line 19: “and”
    • Line 22: “The”
    • Line 24: “The”
    • Line 25: “Never,” “ such innocence,”
    • Line 26: “Never”
    • Line 28: “the”
    • Line 30: “The”
    • Line 32: “Never such innocence again.”

  • Consonance

    

    

    

    

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    Where consonance appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “long,” “lines”
    • Line 9: “shut shops”
    • Lines 9-10: “bleached / Established”
    • Line 10: “sunblinds”
    • Line 12: “dark-clothed children,” “play”
    • Line 13: “Called,” “kings,” “queens”
    • Line 14: “tin advertisements”
    • Line 15: “cocoa,” “twist”
    • Line 17: “countryside,” “caring”
    • Line 19: “flowering,” “fields”
    • Line 21: “wheat's restless silence”
    • Line 22: “differently-dressed servants”
    • Line 23: “huge houses”
    • Line 24: “dust”
    • Line 25: “such innocence”
    • Line 26: “since”
    • Line 27: “itself,” “past”
    • Line 28: “Without,” “word”
    • Line 31: “Lasting,” “little while longer”
    • Line 32: “such innocence”

• “MCMXIV” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • MCMXIV
  • Villa Park
  • The Oval
  • Lark
  • Bank Holiday
  • Sunblinds
  • Bleached
  • Farthing and sovereigns
  • Called after
  • Tin advertisements
  • Cocoa and twist
  • Domesday lines
  • Limousines
  • (Location in poem: )

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “MCMXIV”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “MCMXIV” Speaker

• “MCMXIV” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “MCMXIV”

• More “MCMXIV” Resources

  • External Resources

    • The Poem Out Loud — Listen to Larkin read "MCMXIV" himself. 

    • Larkin's Life and Work — Further resources on Larkin from the Poetry Foundation.

    • World War I — Learn more about the war that looms in the background of "MCMXIV."

    • An Interview With the Poet — Watch poet John Betjeman interview Philip Larkin in 1964, the year he published The Whitsun Weddings.

    • England at War — Take a look at some photographs that capture life during the war.  

  • LitCharts on Other Poems by Philip Larkin

    • Afternoons

    • An Arundel Tomb

    • A Study of Reading Habits

    • Church Going

    • Coming

    • Home Is So Sad

    • Money

    • Mr Bleaney

    • Next, Please

    • Poetry of Departures

    • Talking in Bed

    • The Trees

    • The Whitsun Weddings

    • This Be The Verse

    • Water

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