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(A response to Philip Larkin's question)
He sits in malevolent silence
overseeing my every move.
blinking and licking his eyeballs.
Intimidation is his torturer’s tool.
His warty compelling presence
in a dank corner of my office room
keeps my nose to the grind-stone
disfiguring my promising youth.
So, should I let the toad work
squat on my life?
Yes! This would ensure my time
wasn't spent in idleness and sloth instead.
Disgusting, fat slimy slugs
who will mate and multiply
in my head.
The Victorian work ethic is a very fine thing,
it enables me to live a worthy life.
It keeps me from mischief and high jinks
"The lady doth protest too much, methinks."
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< Why should I let the toad work squat on my life? >
because "No one actually starves" is an exaggeration
- - -
a brightly colored fungus that grows in bark inclusions
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Yes, I thought that, too! Pompous old fool edit (sorry - pompous middle-aged fool....he didn't get a long run)
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"Why should I let the toad work squat on my life?"
It's a nice double entendre, that seems almost a conundrum, or at least for me as I try to hold both meanings to the statement in my head simultaneously. I think you can be an old fool and still be young. I have known people like that. So I have no problem with that aspect of the characterization. I can never decide if Larkin was a spokesman of the disillusioned, or if h was just being opportunistic. It is a problem with that way of speaking, as people tend to question your sincerity, or at least on which horse does that sincerity ride, although I suspect he was very much emotionally disenfranchised from the rest of society. The problem is, in his case it seems a choice. That being so, he often seems to be laughing at those he is suppose to be empathizing with. So quite right you should challenge Larkin on this, although it would have been nice if you had challenged himself (but that would probably not be in character for you), rather than just his words. Still you do seem to answer both possibilities of the statement, although the last line lends the answer a bit of ambiguity to the second one. E.g, does work act as a positive force in my life? The interesting thing is that I think both you and Larkin answer that question the same way, which in his case only to make him appear more disingenuous.
Dale
How long after picking up the brush, the first masterpiece?
The goal is not to obfuscate that which is clear, but make clear that which isn't.
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I'll go with "sincere" since I (mostly) hold librarians in awe.
I think of his work as realistic, not pessimistic;
and I just LOVE his sense of humor.
Speaking of which:
A Study Of Reading Habits - Philip Larkin
When getting my nose in a book
Cured most things short of school,
It was worth ruining my eyes
To know I could still keep cool,
And deal out the old right hook
To dirty dogs twice my size.
Later, with inch-thick specs,
Evil was just my lark:
Me and my coat and fangs
Had ripping times in the dark.
The women I clubbed with sex!
I broke them up like meringues.
Don't read much now: the dude
Who lets the girl down before
The hero arrives, the chap
Who's yellow and keeps the store
Seem far too familiar. Get stewed:
Books are a load of crap.
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(12-29-2011, 08:25 PM)grannyjill Wrote: (A response to Philip Larkin's question)
What question? (I know the title is the question, but I don't know much about Larkin) Could you site a reference so that I can get caught up before I try to do crit? Thanks.
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Here is a link to the poem "Toads" by Phillip Larkin
Toads
How long after picking up the brush, the first masterpiece?
The goal is not to obfuscate that which is clear, but make clear that which isn't.
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.
Mark asked: "Could you site a reference so that I can get caught up before I try to do crit? Thanks."
Philip Larkin asks the question in his poem "Toads"
which you can find here:
http://www.poetryconnection.net/poets/Ph...arkin/4819
Philip Larkin also has a follow-up poem "Toads Revisited".
You can find that one here:
http://www.poetryconnection.net/poets/Ph...arkin/4820
a brightly colored fungus that grows in bark inclusions
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Thanks, ray....I've never read the follow on poem before - and to be honest I only knew the first verse of Toads when I wrote my original version of this (this is an update with changed lines and an added last verse, which I wrote because it amused me to do so)
and so (Mark) a reading of the original may not bring anything to the table. I just liked the way he asked the question.
