Maiden Name
Maiden Name - meaning Summary
Name as Memory Anchor
Larkin’s poem considers how a woman’s maiden name, legally abandoned at marriage, survives as a repository of memory. Though the name is formally disused and scattered through old lists and letters, quietly speaking it revives the woman as she once was—beautiful, near, and young. The name becomes less a factual label and more a shelter for faithful recollection, preserving emotional truth against the eroding effects of time and social change.
Read Complete AnalysesMarrying left your maiden name disused. Its five light sounds no longer mean your face, Your voice, and all your variants of grace; For since you were so thankfully confused By law with someone else, you cannot be Semantically the same as that young beauty: It was of her that these two words were used. Now it's a phrase applicable to no one, Lying just where you left it,scattered through Old lists, old programmes, a school prize or two Packets of letters tied with tartan ribbon - Then is it scentless, weightless, strengthless, wholly Untruthful? Try whispering it slowly. No, it means you. Or, since you're past and gone, It means what we feel now about you then: How beautiful you were, and near, and young, So vivid, you might still be there among Those first few days, unfingermarked again. So your old name shelters our faithfulness, Instead of losing shape and meaning less With your depreciating luggage laden.
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