'Talking In Bed' by Phillip Larkin

The first impression of the poem is that it is going to be a typical love poem because of the title being 'Talking In Bed'. However, along with other paradoxes such as "untrue" and "true" and "kind" and "unkind", the title is a paradox with the poem because the poem is about a couple not talking in bed.

The persona said that "talking in bed ought to be easiest", perhaps because a bed is a very intimate place between a couple, where they should feel most comfortable together so it seems unusual that the couple in this poem are finding it difficult to talk, maybe Larkin is showing what he thinks the reality is of long-term relationships as opposed to the expectations. The persona saying talking should be "easiest" suggests that they're struggling to talk rather than being content in silence. The couple "lying together there goes back so far" is ambiguous as it could literally mean lying as in lying side by side in bed and they've been doing the same thing for a long time or that the couple have been telling each other lies over time, if so, perhaps their relationship is a lie. A couples bed is "an emblem"  like a symbol "of two people being honest" and maybe the persona is saying their's isn't. Or maybe he and his partner are honest and their honesty and their relationship is so strong that their is a metaphorical shield "emblem" to the rest of the world, showing they can't be broken.

In the second stanza I get the impression that the poem is about the struggles of a long-term relationship, perhaps because sometimes they run out of things to say to one another, I reckon either an enduring love or failing love. Perhaps the outside weather, "wind's incompletely unrest" is a metaphor for how the couple are feeling, how inside their heads they have lots of thoughts going around, yet they are still not talking, I think the weather portrays a sense of feeling uncomfortable in the couple. Another thing which I think suggests this is that "dark towns heap", to me this creates an image of darkness and negative things building up metaphorically in the couples' thoughts, perhaps resentment. The outside world will still go on regardless of what the couple do because "none" "cares" for them, this emphasises how a relationship is just about two people and not about anyone else in the world. The "unique distance from isolation" shows the couple are so physically close yet they may still feel isolated and alone.

I think at the beginning of the couple's relationship words were "once true and kind" as that is when it's the beginning of something new and exciting. However as relationships go on and the couple get to know each other more, as well as discovering the other person's good qualities, more flaws are also discovered, this is perhaps why the couple in the poem are "not untrue and not unkind" because it becomes more "difficult to be 100% true and 100% kind at the same time when you know somebody so well. If they were 100% true then they may be being unkind. This may be why the couple are silent.