#philip-larkin — Public Fediverse posts

A quotation from Philip Larkin

Perhaps being old is having lighted rooms
Inside your head, and having people in them, acting.
People you know, yet can’t quite name.

Philip Larkin (1922-1985) English poet, novelist, librarian
Poem (1974), “The Old Fools,” High Windows

More about this quote: wist.info/larkin-philip/68051/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #philiplarkin #dementia #detachment #elderly #forgetting #gettingold #growingold #memory #oldage #senility

Toad Work

Recently I have been enjoying the British television series “Down Cemetery Road.” It is a brilliant mystery drama with first-rate acting, and it can be found on Apple TV and Amazon Prime in Canada.

I discovered the source of the show’s title only when one of the key characters, played by Emma Thompson, recited some of Philip Larkin’s poem “Toads Revisited” which mentions Cemetery Road.

I found the poem on The Poetry Hour website and read it through three times until I felt as though I was in tune with the author’s meaning. I was especially taken by the last stanza which reads:

When the lights come on at four
At the end of another year?
Give me your arm, old toad;
Help me down Cemetery Road.

As I write this post, it is 4:05 PM, and the sun has just gone down behind the buildings that I see from my windows. My blinds have closed automatically already; they are set to close at half an hour before sunset. The lights that my neighbours have placed in the community gardens have been on all day, but the Christmas lights that I have strung around my patio came on at 3:40. Not four o’clock exactly, but pretty close to the poem’s imaginings.

The verses refer to working people of various kinds, and I wondered what was meant by “toad work” so I Googled it. This is how Google AI explains it:

“The toad work” in Philip Larkin’s poem “Toads” symbolizes the heavy, unromantic, and burdensome nature of daily work and societal obligations, a persistent, ugly pressure that squats on one’s life, forcing the speaker to trade days of freedom for money and a pension, even as he grudgingly recognizes his own “toad-like” participation in this system. It’s a metaphor for the monotonous 9-to-5 grind that stifles personal passions, contrasting with the dream of living by one’s wits, yet the poem concludes that both internal and external “toads” (work and creative duty) are inescapable, says Interesting Literature and All Poetry. 

My days of toad work are over, but the lights still come on at around 4 PM in winter here, and I enjoy them. It would be nice to have someone to take my arm as my aging body takes walks, but I am grateful that I have the strength to walk alone.

I heartily recommend both the TV show and the poem. They will give you lots to think about.

#aging #christmas #downCemeteryRoad #lights #nature #philipLarkin #poetry #sunset #television #toadsRevisited #winter #writing

#APoemADay #PhilipLarkin #love #poetry #silentsunday

“Requiem”, above – Robert Louis Stevenson’s self-composed epitaph – provides the title for Philip Larkin’s poem “This Be the Verse”. Daniel Bosch compares the two epitaphic fictions in the PARIS REVIEW

4/5

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2014/04/29/on-epitaphic-fictions-robert-louis-stevenson-philip-larkin/

#Scottish #literature #19thCentury #RobertLouisStevenson #PhilipLarkin #poem #poetry #epitaph

🎵Jazz tracks mentioned by poet Philip Larkin in his famous collection of reviews, All What Jazz #jazz #philiplarkin #music #playlist #Spotify #poetry #larkin #poem

🎧 Click here to listen to the playlist 👉 https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2AFE5cnK4h3FDvGCtnqcEE?si=q28-NWk1Syy2qPNGtXlcHg&pi=e-B7QlTkzxQV6D

www.speckled.band

This Be The Ditty

They buck you up, your mum and dad
They really mean to, yes they do.
They fill you with their malts, they’re glad
Stir in some extra just for you

#ThisBeTheVerse
#PhilipLarkin

#MakeASongOrPoemSuperficial
#HashTagGames

Philip Larkin
#literature #PhilipLarkin

They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had. And add some extra, just for you. … #PhilipLarkin via #AnneClark

The punk rock, alt rock and indie music on my Fire Red Sky newsletter takes a break* for some books in the sun

*not counting Punk USA and its oral history of Lookout! Records

https://open.substack.com/pub/tangleofwires/p/holiday-reading

#music #punk #PunkRock #PopPunk #France #Toulouse #JackKerouac #GeorgesSimenon #GKChesterton #RohintonMistry #SadieJones #PhilipLarkin #Descendents #KevinPrested #LookoutRecords #GreenDay #FireRedSky #newsletter #newsletters

WHAT a PIECE of absolute racist SHIT!!!

#SocialistWorker
#PhilipLarkin 🤮🤮, 💩#racist, #bigot and so called 'poet'
https://socialistworker.co.uk/socialist-review-archive/philip-larkin-racist-bigot-and-poet/

“Requiem”, above – Robert Louis Stevenson’s self-composed epitaph – provides the title for Philip Larkin’s most famous #poem, “This Be the Verse”. Daniel Bosch compares the two epitaphic fictions in the Paris Review

#Scottish #literature #19thCentury #RobertLouisStevenson #PhilipLarkin

4/5
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2014/04/29/on-epitaphic-fictions-robert-louis-stevenson-philip-larkin/

@stopthatgirl7

Sooo happy to see this in my Home feed, seeing that Lovecraft is nearly as uncritically worshipped by white people as superturd #PhilipLarkin.

The Geology of Misery: What #PhilipLarkin and #TedLasso (and Science) Tell Us About #Trauma. #MentalHealth #psychology https://lithub.com/the-geology-of-misery-what-philip-larkin-and-ted-lasso-and-science-tell-us-about-trauma/

i just finished watching s3 ep11. twice in a row…

and oh. my. god. only now when the end is nigh they bring in #mom #mother!? and “a drawer without a home”!? and i found myself #sobbing (when did it last happen to me?!) soon after #jamietartt’s win!? then #coachbeard’s talking at the door!? and why is it so hard (heartbreaking) to watch #tedlasso himself cry… #television #tv #appletvplus #homecinema #heimkino #thisbetheverse #philiplarkin #poem #poetry https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48419/this-be-the-verse

Whether it's #Morrissey, #PhilipLarkin or #MattHealy the amount white people will bend over backwards to forgive their favourite racists is extraordinary.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/the-1975-matty-healy-ice-spice-apology-1234721163/

#Racism #The1975 #Edgelords

@peachfront
"It will be Spring soon"
"It will be Spring soon"

#BirdsongProject #PhilipLarkin #SamMendes #Poetry #poem https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hNZF7QGO01I

'They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And call you Thor and Maverick too.'

Still, I liked the idea of calling a newborn Chucky - though then you should give the baby a second & third name too, like Ulysses & Patroclus; as In 'Chucky U.P.' Smith/Jones/Whatever.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/jan/11/would-you-call-your-child-maverick-or-thor-the-improbable-rise-of-baby-name-maximalism

#PhilipLarkin
#Chucky

The Guardian view on Philip Larkin at 100: a lasting gift https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/25/the-guardian-view-on-philip-larkin-at-100-a-lasting-gift?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

#PhilipLarkin
#poetry

#7books
(these all got to me before I was 21, and kind of soaked into me)
Jane Eyre #CharlotteBronte
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy #DouglasAdams
The Catcher in the Rye #JDSalinger
Rebecca #DaphneDuMaurier
Beyond The Glass #AntoniaWhite
Good Morning, Midnight #JeanRhys
The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse (selected by #PhilipLarkin - my aunt gave it to me for my 16th birthday)

#books #bookstodon #reading