Wild Oats

'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 poem explores the idea of unattainable beauty, and the unreachable element of love. Jane used to often appear in the Library where Larkin worked in Wellington with her friend, Ruth Bowman. Larkin was engaged to Ruth but during, and after, this period of time, he sent frequent letters to Jane, who he referred to as a 'bosomy English rose', and was held as the object of his affections. 'Wild Oats' describes the fickle love which Larkin held for Jane and also, like many of his other poems, presents love as rather a negative thing, with a lot of potential for destruction.
     The shallowness of Larkin's love, or more likely lust, for Jane 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'. These lines show that love was based on appearance, presenting a theme of objectification and love vs. lust. The fact that Larkin likes Jane but takes out her friend, Ruth, makes him appear cruel and uncaring. In the second stanza he goes on to describe how his relationship with Ruth lasted for seven years, and they 'Wrote over four hundred letters'; this amount of letters sent back and forth between the lovers seems odd, and depicts the fact that their relationship was very distant, probably due to the fact that Larkin really wanted Jane. He tells the reader of how he believes he 'met beautiful twice'. 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'; by stating this, Larkin presents himself as extremely unsure of himself, and completely lacking in self-confidence. This is supported in the fourth line of the first stanza: 'And her friend in specs I could talk to.' This makes the reader think that Larkin does not believe himself good enough, or even capable of talking to, Jane, and so instead he targets Ruth who he appears to think is more like him - she is less attractive, and therefore not unattainable in the way that Jane is.
     The final stanza of 'Wild Oats' presents the agreement between Ruth and Larkin that he was 'too selfish, withdrawn, / And easily bored to love.'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, only of lust, and he appears to give his seven-year relationship up without any fight, further proving that he never really cared for Ruth in the way that he should have - he did not love her. This mention of Larkin's selfishness concerning love links to his other poems 'Dockery and Son' and 'Self's the Man'.
     The poem ends by discussing the two pictures of Jane that Larkin kept in his wallet for twenty years. The photographs are referred to as 'Unlucky charms', and it could be argued that this is a portrayal of the fact that nothing around him will ever match up to this fantasy woman from all those years ago. This ends the poem with a miserable, depressing tone, and I think the overall view of love in 'Wild Oats' is that it is imperfect, and can never quite match up to it's reputation. This links to 'Love Songs in Age' and 'Faith Healing'.