Aubade
A poetic genre originating in medieval literature in which lovers must part at dawn. Aubade poems often feature the tension between desire to remain together and necessity of separation, using dawn imagery symbolically.
Real World
Philip Larkin's 'Aubade' (1977) radically modernises the form — instead of lovers parting at dawn, Larkin's speaker lies awake at 4am confronting not separation from a beloved but the terror of his own mortality, transforming dawn from romantic symbol into existential threat.
Exam Focus
Reference the genre conventions an aubade sets up, then analyse precisely how the poet conforms to or subverts them — examiners reward contextual genre knowledge.
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