Theme of Love-Wild Oats

Theme of Love

Wild Oats by Philip Larkin
The phrase 'Wild Oats' symbolises a period in a young male's life when he has a lot of sexual relationships, therefore Larkin sets the tone of the poem from the title. 'Wild Oats' is believed to offer an insight into Philip Larkin's love affair with Jane Exall, and his attempt to get to her through dating her 'friend in specs'. 

The first women mentioned is 'a bosomy English rose' which is a stereotypical idea of a women, which is purely based on appearance. She sounds desirable unlike her 'friend in specs'  The shallowness of Larkin's love, or more likely lust, is portrayed clearly in the first stanza: 'Faces in those days sparked The whole shooting match off, and I doubt If ever one had like hers: But it was the friend I took out'. This demonstrates how Larkin's love was purely based on appearance, not the inner self. The fact that Larkin likes Jane but takes out her friend, Ruth, makes him appear cruel and uncaring.

In the second stanza, we learn that Larkin's relationship with 'the friend' lasted seven years where they 'wrote over four hundred letters' which suggests the relationship was long distant. Larkin tells the reader of how he believes he 'met beautiful twice' where this is believed to be a reference to the two times that Larkin met with Jane, once in Leicester and another time in Shrewsbury, both in 1950. Both times he believed that Jane was 'trying not to laugh' therefore Larkin presents himself as extremely unsure of himself, essentially lacking in self-confidence. 

In the final stanza, the agreement between Ruth and Larkin is presented as Larkin was 'too selfish, withdrawn, And easily bored to love.' The word 'agreement' suggests that Larkin holds the same opinion of himself that Ruth does. He does not see himself as being capable of love, this is supported by the speaker saying "well, useful to get that learnt" which sounds sarcastic and cynical of the relationship he had, like he felt he had wasted his time but he feels the same thing would happen again if he had another relationship.

Many years had past yet the speaker still has "two snaps, of bosomy rose with fur gloves on" which portrays a sexual description of the woman which suggest that ultimately the speaker was never interested in love, instead his desires were only based on physical/sexual attraction. The poem ends with the phrase "unlucky charms" which indicates he is unlucky in love and his future relationships are doomed.