Here

'Here' is a poem by Philip Larkin which follows a journey through Hull, his hometown. Larkin presents his personal portrayal of the landscape; like 'The Whitsun Weddings', the setting is melancholy and his description is pessimistic. He is "swerving through fields / Too thin and thistled to be called meadows" and the population is made up of "A cut-price crowd, urban yet simple". This gives the populace a labeling of cheapness - again, this is similar to 'The Whitsun Weddings' whose female characters wear "nylon gloves and jewellery-substitutes".
     Larkin depicts Hull as a place "Where only salesmen and relations come" to visit, and this provides the reader with a sense of how unattractive and formidable the area itself is. This point is backed up by his description of the "grim head-scarfed wives"; this quote creates a depressing tone and allows the reader to imagine Hull's inhabitants as unhappy, whilst the words 'head-scarfed' produces the possibility of hidden identities. "The piled gold clouds, the shining gull-marked mud" - this oxymoronic line shows how the mud undermines any possibility of a landscape which encapsulates any beauty. Larkin is providing a snippet of sanguinity but then immediately crushes it, masking it with the 'mud' of gloom which seems to coat the landscape which he is overlooking.
     However, although this poem's overall tone is fairly miserable, like in 'The Whitsun Weddings' Larkin uses nature as a form of hope and optimism. He tells the reader of how the "Hidden weeds flower" and "neglected waters quicken"; 'weeds' and 'flower' are oxymorons, and show how although the town is covered in weeds, nature will still bring beauty. These natural forms are depicted as being more alive than the human population, and the 'neglected' elements of nature are still moving at their own pace, even though no-one is there to witness the changes which they bring. Like Larkin's reference to the rain in the final line of 'The Whitsun Weddings', this provides a certain comfort for the reader.
     The final three lines of the last stanza from 'Here' present another snippet of hope and freedom, which is yet again extinguished by the harshness of reality. Larkin portrays an "unfenced existence" which lays "beyond a beach" - the beach is the end of the land but the beginning of the ocean, and the ocean represents pure freedom to him. However, this is followed by the fact that this freedom is "Facing the sun, untalkative, out of reach." The openness which lies before him is untouchable, and the reality which faces him is the fact that he is fenced into the world which he lives in.