• home
  • Poetry
  • Prose
  • Notes
  • Translation
SUMMARY HUNTER

Sad Steps BY PHILIP LARKIN

Tags: Philip Larkin , Poetry
Sad Steps  BY PHILIP LARKIN


Groping back to bed after a piss
I part thick curtains, and am startled by 
The rapid clouds, the moon’s cleanliness.

Four o’clock: wedge-shadowed gardens lie 
Under a cavernous, a wind-picked sky. 
There’s something laughable about this,

The way the moon dashes through clouds that blow 
Loosely as cannon-smoke to stand apart 
(Stone-coloured light sharpening the roofs below)

High and preposterous and separate— 
Lozenge of love! Medallion of art!
O wolves of memory! Immensements! No,

One shivers slightly, looking up there.
The hardness and the brightness and the plain 
Far-reaching singleness of that wide stare

Is a reminder of the strength and pain 
Of being young; that it can’t come again, 
But is for others undiminished somewhere.

Philip Larkin, "Sad Steps" from Collected Poems. Copyright © Estate of Philip Larkin.  Reprinted by permission of Faber and Faber, Ltd.
Source: Collected Poems (Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2001)
Tweet

Related Posts

  • The Sunshine Cat - Poem by Kamala Das
    The Sunshine Cat - Poem by Kamala Das
  • The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope- Summary and Analysis
    The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope- Summary and Analysis
  • Paradise Lost by John Milton- Summary and Analysis
    Paradise Lost by John Milton- Summary and Analysis
  • Matthew Arnold: Poems Summary and Analysis of
    Matthew Arnold: Poems Summary and Analysis of "The Scholar-Gipsy
Newer Post Older Post Home

QUICK LINKS

  • Home
  • Help
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Statement

Popular Posts

  • Shakespeares Plays - List of all Plays With Short Summary
      Shakespeare's Plays: A Complete Guide with Summaries William Shakespeare’s 39 plays encompass timeless themes, unforgettable character...
  • The Freaks by Kamala Das
    The Freaks by Kamala Das He talks, turning a sun-stained Cheek to me, his mouth, a dark Cavern, where stalactites of ...
  • Fra Lippo Lippi by Robert Browning
    [Florentine painter, 1412-69] I am poor brother Lippo, by your leave! You need not clap your torches to my face. Zooks,  wha...

Social Links

  • FACEBOOK
  • INSTAGRAM

© SUMMARY HUNTER 2019 . Powered by SH