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joggyjog's review
5.0
A lovely book to start my year. Larkin’s poem “Home is so sad” is featured in Ann Patchett’s “The Dutch House,” which I finished last week. So happy I followed the trail!
casparb's review
Another exquisite Larkin he was really on something here.
Our almost instinct almost true...
Our almost instinct almost true...
catrinsbookshelf's review
1.0
god isn't he such a incel
I absolutely love some of these poems but the rest are just 'look at these thick poor people with no education who are stupid for following society, I'm obvs superior because I have 50 women on the go at once therefore I'm not like other stupid people for getting married'
I absolutely love some of these poems but the rest are just 'look at these thick poor people with no education who are stupid for following society, I'm obvs superior because I have 50 women on the go at once therefore I'm not like other stupid people for getting married'
nattynatchan's review
4.0
"Where can we live but days?
Ah, solving that question
Brings the priest and the doctor
In their long coats
Running over the fields."
Ah, solving that question
Brings the priest and the doctor
In their long coats
Running over the fields."
slow_spines's review
reflective
sad
4.25
This is sad and unsentimental collection of poems. Read "Reference Back" and if its your cuppa, you'll like the rest I'm sure.
The poems are understated and often very matter-of-fact. There's a plainness to them, but that shouldn't be mistaken as being boring or bland. Yes, these are poems about people living unexciting lives - "A cut price crowd, urban yet simple". They travel for work, inhabit small spaces, watch TV, go to church, go to bed. But these are also people hemmed in, quietly struggling with their existence in a very plain - very everyday - way. These are people who have sad realisations, not tragic revelations.
Death is a major theme in a lot of these poems, directly of not. Often characters will realise some unwanted truth, and by way of this will also come to realise life has passed them by. If you're in the mood for it, you might even find some of it beautiful. There is certainly some beauty to be found in Larkin's language - everyday things are illuminated in a sometimes novel and beautiful way. There's humour too: a whimsical meditation on death here, some good old schoolboy humour there. But on the whole these poems are just...sad.
"Sad" feels like an anaemic word to use, but its the perfect one - there's a realness and simplicity to some of these poems that excites - if that's the word - a basic, unadorned sadness. I enjoyed every poem here, and I think some of its quiet imagery is going to stay in my head - the lover desperately trying to decipher static, the woman holding her song books, that mysterious final stanza on the title poem. Maybe that's because there's a side to me that particularly enjoys this sort of tone. There is that other part of me though - the winning part, I hope - that wants to give Larkin a good shake.
The poems are understated and often very matter-of-fact. There's a plainness to them, but that shouldn't be mistaken as being boring or bland. Yes, these are poems about people living unexciting lives - "A cut price crowd, urban yet simple". They travel for work, inhabit small spaces, watch TV, go to church, go to bed. But these are also people hemmed in, quietly struggling with their existence in a very plain - very everyday - way. These are people who have sad realisations, not tragic revelations.
Death is a major theme in a lot of these poems, directly of not. Often characters will realise some unwanted truth, and by way of this will also come to realise life has passed them by. If you're in the mood for it, you might even find some of it beautiful. There is certainly some beauty to be found in Larkin's language - everyday things are illuminated in a sometimes novel and beautiful way. There's humour too: a whimsical meditation on death here, some good old schoolboy humour there. But on the whole these poems are just...sad.
"Sad" feels like an anaemic word to use, but its the perfect one - there's a realness and simplicity to some of these poems that excites - if that's the word - a basic, unadorned sadness. I enjoyed every poem here, and I think some of its quiet imagery is going to stay in my head - the lover desperately trying to decipher static, the woman holding her song books, that mysterious final stanza on the title poem. Maybe that's because there's a side to me that particularly enjoys this sort of tone. There is that other part of me though - the winning part, I hope - that wants to give Larkin a good shake.
lilyvoituret's review
dark
funny
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
cubehead27's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
sad
3.5