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Poet: Philip Larkin
Poem: Next, Please
Volume: Pocket Book of Modern Poetry, Washington Square Press, copyright 1954, 1958
Year: Published/Written in 1954
Poem of the Day on:
Aug 26 2004
Comment 5 of 5, added on June 1st, 2006 at 5:14 PM.
One observation I would make is that this poem wraps things up rather quickly. Still, I think it's a fine poem and am struck by the ludicrous, mocking image of our personal treasure ship coming into dock.
Only Emily Dickinson is more morbid, but I love the eloquence, precision and dry English humor -- er, humour -- with which Larkin defines our predicament. If he weren't a poet he could have been a lawyer. He is also very compassionate though that doesn't come through in this poem so much. What I can't understand is why so many people throw their lives away quickly and effortlessly, as do young people who join a band of rebels and get shot or join a rock band commit suicide. Isn't it better to drag things out? That's always been my approach.
Peter from United States
Comment 4 of 5, added on December 6th, 2005 at 1:18 AM.
This is in some ways a gloomy poem, which never fails to send a shiver down my spine. But it is beautifully written, and also funny (rhyming "tits" with "it's"!) and can probably be read as advice to eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we may die.
Cara from China
Comment 3 of 5, added on April 1st, 2005 at 1:53 AM.
True, this is a depressing poem, if you take it that way. When I first read it some years ago, it seemed like an irrefutable comment on life. How many times haven't we felt that we are waiting (oh so long) for the good things to happen and when they do they are never as fulfilling in the realisation as they are in the promise. And yes, the greatest certainty is death, the one thing that we are not waiting for but which is inevitably seeking us, after which there is nothing -- not even disappointment.
But reading it now, I can see another side. While the poem seems to speak of inevitability, it doesn't have to be that way:
"Always too eager for the future, we
Pick up bad habits of expectancy."
The poet speaks fo the 'bad habits' of expectancy. To break the inevitability of the poem, we have to break the bad habit of living for the next wonderful thing in our lives. We must live in the present, enjoying our lives as we live them. It is no use pinning our lives on some future event, which only disappoints us when it comes and sets us hoping for the next future event.
So I take the poem as a warning not to live your life pining for the future. If you live your life taking each moment as it comes, the richness of a well-lived life will leave you psychologically prepared for the inevitable time of death, when the black-sailed ship comes seeking us.
Life is meaningless and death terrifying -- if you live your life that way. That is the lesson of this popem.
Greg from Australia
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One observation I would make is that this poem wraps things up rather quickly. Still, I think it's a fine poem and am struck by the ludicrous, mocking image of our personal treasure ship coming into dock.
Only Emily Dickinson is more morbid, but I love the eloquence, precision and dry English humor -- er, humour -- with which Larkin defines our predicament. If he weren't a poet he could have been a lawyer. He is also very compassionate though that doesn't come through in this poem so much. What I can't understand is why so many people throw their lives away quickly and effortlessly, as do young people who join a band of rebels and get shot or join a rock band commit suicide. Isn't it better to drag things out? That's always been my approach.
Peter from United States