Content
The speaker reflects on the beginnings of his relationship with his wife, valuing it and pitying the isolated Malham Bird who never will experience such beauty.
Analysis n
The pause after 'in love-' allows us space to acknowledge and appreciate the confidence and ease to which the speaker can say this to his loved 'dear wife', in a direct and intimate tone. There is lots on natural imagery which connotes peace and tranquillity perhaps reflecting their close relationship, in the 'beach' and 'seagull' as well as the liberty of the 'high in blue' skies which create a sense of limitless possibility to their love. Their extremely close proximity is seen as they 'lay on (their) shadows', much more intimate and assured than any of Larkin's expressions of love. A sense of pity is created towards the 'resolute' Malham Bird, the triple structure: 'lonely, immoral, forever winging' exemplifies both his isolation but also in the forever winging yet never flying, perhaps an unfulfillment in suggested, that to the speaker marriage is completeness.
Their complete faith to each other is seen in the use of pronouns, from the separate 'you' and 'I' to 'we' and 'our' embodying that indeed they are 'more than together', it is clearly a uniting process, 'you a gentile and I a Jew!'. In contrast, the Malham Bird is seen as 'it', completely detached and alone. The absence of caesura in the opening stanza creates a quick pace synonymous with the speed at which the couple fell in love as well as supporting that earlier imagery of limitlessness. The tercet to close creates a Larkinesque structure yet in the reverse, it is symbolic of the Malham Bird's unfulfillment as he is not married which implies the speaker and abse, highly value marriage
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