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Larkin Bleaney

This poem summarizes Mr. Bleaney's sparse living situation in a rented room. The room shows signs of wear with frayed curtains and limited space. All that remains of Mr. Bleaney are a bed, chair, and light bulb as the narrator now occupies the same small room. The narrator reflects on Mr. Bleaney's solitary life and limited possessions, wondering if this meager existence caused him inner dread or acceptance of his circumstances.

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Suhaib Qaisar
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469 views1 page

Larkin Bleaney

This poem summarizes Mr. Bleaney's sparse living situation in a rented room. The room shows signs of wear with frayed curtains and limited space. All that remains of Mr. Bleaney are a bed, chair, and light bulb as the narrator now occupies the same small room. The narrator reflects on Mr. Bleaney's solitary life and limited possessions, wondering if this meager existence caused him inner dread or acceptance of his circumstances.

Uploaded by

Suhaib Qaisar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Mr Bleaney

“This was Mr Bleaney’s room. He stayed


The whole time he was at the Bodies, till
They moved him.” Flowered curtains, thin and frayed,
Fall to within five inches of the sill,

5 Whose window shows a strip of building land,


Tussocky, littered. “Mr Bleaney took
My bit of garden properly in hand.”
Bed, upright chair, sixty-watt bulb, no hook

Behind the door, no room for books or bags —


10 “I’ll take it.” So it happens that I lie
Where Mr Bleaney lay, and stub my fags
On the same saucer-souvenir, and try

Stuffing my ears with cotton-wool, to drown


The jabbering set he egged her on to buy.
15 I know his habits — what time he came down,
His preference for sauce to gravy, why

He kept on plugging at the four aways —


Likewise their yearly frame: the Frinton folk
Who put him up for summer holidays,
20 And Christmas at his sister’s house in Stoke.

But if he stood and watched the frigid wind


Tousling the clouds, lay down on the fusty bed
Telling himself that this was home, and grinned,
And shivered, without shaking off the dread

25 That how we live measures our own nature,


And at his age having no more to show
Than one hired box should make him pretty sure
He warranted no better, I don’t know.

Philip Larkin, from The Whitsun Weddings, 1964


This poem written May 1955
Notes
Bodies : station carrosserie sur une chaîne de fabrication d’automobiles
Tussocky= the ground is uneven, it has tussocks = bumps with grass on them
Fags = cigarettes (colloquial)
Jabbering : noisy, always talking (refers to the TV set)
Egged her on to buy = insisted she buy
Four aways = bets on t football games
Tousled : usually of hair = uncombed, disordered. Here used metaphorically for clouds.

R eading : l 1- 6
Translation : l 10 (So it happens) – 14 (buy)

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