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"Young mothers assemble
At swing and sandpit
Setting free their children."
Philip Larkin (1922-1986), British poet. "Afternoons." |
"Why did he think adding meant increase?
To me it was dilution. Where do these
Innate assumptions come from?"
Philip Larkin (1922-1986), British poet. "Dockery and Son." |
"The bells discuss the hour's gradations,
Dusty shelves hold prayers and proofs:
Above, Chaldean constellations
Sparkle over crowded roofs."
Philip Larkin (1922-1986), British poet. "Livings." |
""It's stinking dead, the research line;
Just let me put this bastard on the skids,
I'll get a couple of semesters leave
To work on Protest Theater.""
Philip Larkin (1922-1986), British poet. "Posterity." |
"Can they never tell
What is dragging them back, and how it will end? Not at night?
Not when the strangers come? Never, throughout
The whole hideous inverted childhood? Well,
We shall find out."
Philip Larkin (1922-1986), British poet. "The Old Fools." |
"Their beauty has thickened.
Something is pushing them
To the side of their own lives."
Philip Larkin (1922-1986), British poet. "Afternoons." |
"As they wend away
A voice is heard singing
Of Kitty, or Katy,
As if the name meant once
All love, all beauty."
Philip Larkin (1922-1986), British poet. "Dublinesque." |
"Who makes ends meet, who's taking the knock,
Government tariffs, wages, price of stock.
Smoke hangs under the light."
Philip Larkin (1922-1986), British poet. "Livings." |
"Pour away that youth
That overflows the heart
Into hair and mouth...."
Philip Larkin (1922-1986), British poet. "Pour away that youth." |
"Perhaps being old is having lighted rooms
Inside your head, and people in them, acting.
People you know, yet can't quite name."
Philip Larkin (1922-1986), British poet. The Old Fools, st. 3, High Windows (1974). |
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Philip Larkin
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