Poeticous Logo
en
English Español Français Italiano
Philip Larkin

Philip Larkin

I Have Started to Say

I have started to say
“A quarter of a century”
Or “thirty years back”
About my own life.
 
It makes me breathless
It’s like falling and recovering
In huge gesturing loops
Through an empty sky.
 
All that’s left to happen
Is some deaths (my own included).
Their order, and their manner,
Remain to be learnt.

#English

Enjoyed this read? Treat us to a coffee!.
Your help allows us to exist.
Other works by Philip Larkin...
Since the Majority of Me

Since the majority of me Rejects the majority of you, Debating ends forwith, and we Divide. And sure of what to do We disinfect new blocks of days
Sunny Prestatyn

Come To Sunny Prestatyn Laughed the girl on the poster, Kneeling up on the sand In tautened white satin. Behind her, a hunk of coast, a
The Importance of Elsewhere

Lonely in Ireland, since it was n… Strangeness made sense. The salt… Insisting so on difference, made m… Once that was recognised, we were… Their draughty streets, end—on to…
 1
Farmhouse in Provence, by Vincent van Gogh
No Road

Since we agreed to let the road be… Fall to disuse, And bricked our gates up, planted… And turned all time’s eroding agen… Silence, and space, and strangers…
 3
To my Wife

Choice of you shuts up that peacoc… The future was, in which temptingl… All that elaborative nature can. Matchless potential! but unlimited Only so long as I elected nothing…
 1
Office in a small city, by Edward Hopper
Wants

Beyond all this, the wish to be al… However the sky grows dark with in… However we follow the printed dire… However the family is photographed… Beyond all this, the wish to be al…
Reasons for Attendance

The trumpet’s voice, loud and auth… Draws me a moment to the lighted g… To watch the dancers —all under tw… Solemnly on the beat of happiness. –Or so I fancy, sensing the smoke…
Easter Morning, by Caspar David Friedrich
The Trees

The trees are coming into leaf Like something almost being said; The recent buds relax and spread, Their greenness is a kind of grief… Is it that they are born again
 1
 15
Dream, by Joan Brull
Träumerei

In this dream that dogs me I am p… Of a silent crowd walking under a… Leaving a football match, perhaps,… All moving the same way. After a… A second wall closes on our right,
Homage to a Government

Next year we are to bring all the… For lack of money, and it is all r… Places they guarded, or kept order… We want the money for ourselves at… Instead of working. And this is a…
The Spirit Wooed

Once I believed in you, And then you came, Unquestionably new, as fame Had said you were. But that was l… You launched no argument,
 1
Whatever Happened?

At once whatever happened starts r… Panting, and back on board, we lin… With trousers ripped, light wallet… Yes, gone, thank God! Remembering… We toss for half the night, but fi…
Best Society

When I was a child, I thought, Casually, that solitude Never needed to be sought. Something everybody had, Like nakedness, it lay at hand,
 2
Why Did I Dream of You Last Night?

Why did I dream of you last night… Now morning is pushing back hair w… Memories strike home, like slaps i… Raised on elbow, I stare at the p… beyond the window.
 1
Is It for Now Or for Always

Is it for now or for always, The world hangs on a stalk? Is it a trick or a trysting—place, The woods we have found to walk? Is it a mirage or miracle,
 1



Top