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Mr Bleaney
empty life in this coffin-like room. The poem warns that it’s all
SUMMARY too easy for a dreary, mediocre existence to develop its own
momentum, trapping people in gloomy circumstances forever.
A landlady tells the speaker that the room he's considering
renting was formerly occupied by a man named Mr. Bleaney. The speaker’s portrait of Bleaney suggests that he feels both
Bleaney lived there the whole time he worked at a car distaste and a queasy pity for his small, sad life. Bleaney’s drab
manufacturing plant known as "the Bodies," until he died or was bedroom, without so much as a “hook” on the door for clothes,
transferred. The room's thin, shabby, floral-patterned curtains speaks of a life empty of vitality and meaning. The landlady’s
hang five inches short of the windowsill. stories about him suggest much the same: he appears to have
been a creature of habit, committed to a dull routine. He seems
The window shows a small yard full of grass clumps and litter.
to have had no curiosity beyond listening to the “jabbering set”
The landlady mentions her "garden" and claims that Bleaney
(a radio or TV), no aspirations beyond gambling, and no
improved it. The room contains a bed, a straight-backed chair, a
intimate contacts besides a sister he saw once a year. And his
weak lightbulb, no hook attached to the door, and no space for
efforts to leave a mark on the world didn’t come to much: the
personal items such as books and luggage.
“bit of garden” he once tended, for instance, is a mess now.
The speaker tells the landlady he'll rent it. The speaker now lies
But what really makes the speaker uncomfortable is the fact
in the same bed Bleaney once lay in, crushes his cigarette butts
that he himself seems to be following in Bleaney’s footsteps.
in the same tacky saucer Bleaney once used, and plugs his ears
While the speaker can clearly see how empty and constrained
with cotton to muffle the radio Bleaney once urged the
Bleaney’s life was, he also finds himself accepting exactly those
landlady to buy.
same circumstances. After assessing Bleaney’s grim little room,
He's learned all of Bleaney's old habits, such as what time he the speaker says, “I’ll take it,” as if resigning himself to “taking
came downstairs each day, how he liked sauce better than on” Bleaney’s reality.
gravy, and why he kept betting on soccer.
Worse still, he seems almost to be living Bleaney’s life! He
He's also learned about the yearly schedule that shaped those “lie[s] / Where Mr Bleaney lay”—literally and figuratively
habits, such as the summer vacations Bleaney spent with occupying Bleaney’s position—and idly smokes as if burning
acquaintances in Frinton-on-Sea and the Christmases he spent away his time and health. His claim that he “know[s Bleaney's]
at his sister's house in Stoke-on-Trent. habits” suggests that he has learned all about Bleaney’s routine
The speaker wonders whether Bleaney stood looking out at from the landlady; he’s gained an uncomfortably detailed
cold, cloudy weather; lay on the musty bed, pretending this understanding of the man whose place he’s taken. And all of
room was an acceptable home; and smiled while shivering. this is deeply unsettling to the speaker: his remark that, “at his
At the same time, the speaker wonders if Bleaney felt a age,” Bleaney had “no more to show” than this sad, cramped
persistent fear that our living conditions reflect who we truly room suggests an awareness that Bleaney’s circumstances
are, and that for someone as old as he was, having nothing would be a terrible thing to accept in the long term.
more than a tiny rented room meant that was all he'd earned in Knowing what a life like Bleaney’s comes to, the speaker feels
life. The speaker says that these are things he doesn't know for deeply afraid that he’ll never make anything more of himself
sure about Bleaney. than Bleaney did—a fear that might become its own kind of
trap. Lying in the bed where Bleaney once lay, the speaker
wonders whether Bleaney felt the same “dread” that he does
THEMES about the prospect of spending life alone in this room—an
ominous thought! If Bleaney shared some of that dread, these
reflections imply, then even understanding that one is living a
THE DANGERS OF MEDIOCRITY
mediocre life can’t save one from such a life.
“Mr Bleaney” sketches a sad portrait of the tenant
The speaker seems to feel Bleaney’s fate as a judgement, too.
who formerly occupied the speaker’s rented room.
Worrying that “how we live measures our own nature,” the
The tenant, Mr. Bleaney, led a dull, solitary life, lacking in
speaker fears that an empty life suggests an empty
spontaneity, intimacy, and ambition. The drab, confined room
character—and that he might easily discover that he’s as hollow
where he lived and died seems to reflect his personal qualities,
a person as Bleaney seems to have been. Perhaps, the poem
as if his ghost still lingers. Seeing these qualities as a judgment
implies, that sense of hollow worthlessness is part of what traps
on Bleaney’s character, the speaker also judges himself: he has
people in empty lives. If you believe that your circumstances
literally taken Bleaney’s place, and fears that he, too, will live an

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are a reflection of your character, gloomy circumstances can seem a little haunted.
become a self-fulfilling prophecy, discouraging you from trying Both of the first two lines are enjambed
enjambed. The enjambment after
to escape. line 1 emphasizes the word "stayed" and makes it
linger—stay—in the reader's mind for a moment. Until the
Where this theme appears in the poem: sentence continues, it reads simply "He stayed." In a way, that
• Lines 1-28 simple phrase seems true of Bleaney: his ghostly presence
seems to linger in the room.
The enjambment after line 2 creates a pause after "till." If the
landlady is hinting that Bleaney died here, the pause might
LINE-BY
LINE-BY-LINE
-LINE ANAL
ANALYSIS
YSIS reflect her awkwardness as she decides how to share this fact.
LINES 1-3 LINES 3-8
‘This was Mr ... Flowered curtains, thin ...
... They moved him.’ ... bulb, no hook
The poem's opening lines are literally dramatic: quoting the In lines 3-7, the speaker takes stock of the room as the landlady
speaker's landlady, they plunge the reader straight into a keeps talking. The details he notices convey how drab and
miniature drama, complete with characters, dialogue, setting, unimpressive the room is. The floral-patterned curtains are
and exposition. There's something ironic about this theatrical "thin," "frayed," and inadequate to cover the window: they "Fall
beginning. As the poem goes on, it will focus on how undramatic [only] to within five inches of the sill." (Notice how the sill,
the setting here is—how little happens. singular, suggests that there's only one window.) The window
The person quoted is a landlady, who's showing the speaker a itself "shows a strip of building land, / Tussocky, littered"; in
room that she's renting out and telling him about the previous other words, the room has a view of a small yard or lot full of
tenant. Evidently, she got to know that tenant fairly well over grass clumps and debris. Not very inviting!
the years—but the two probably weren't that close, as she still The landlady claims—likely as the speaker's looking out the
refers to him by the formal "Mr Bleaney." window—that "Mr Bleaney took / My bit of garden properly in
There's something faintly comic about this name. It echoes hand." In other words, Mr. Bleaney supposedly improved her
homely words like "beans" and "bleary"; shares its initial /bl/ small garden. But nothing about the view the speaker describes
sound with words that connote banality, like "bland" and "blah"; suggests a garden, so there are a few interpretive possibilities
and rhymes with colloquial words for smallness, such as "teeny." here:
Bleaney already sounds like an average, forgettable old chap.
Bleaney rented this room (likely part of a bedsit or cheap • The garden is too small to be visible to the speaker,
boarding house) "the whole time he was at the Bodies"—a term and therefore too small to have improved the ugly
view.
that the poem doesn't explain, but that clearly refers to his
• The "[t]ussocky, littered" yard is supposed to be the
workplace. (Larkin once suggested that "the Bodies" was an
garden, or what's left of it.
auto works; there was also a taxi manufacturer called
• The landlady is describing a garden that no longer
Carbodies in his hometown of Coventry.) But the nickname
exists.
"Bodies" inescapably calls to mind human bodies, like the
depersonalized bodies of workers at a grueling job. It also calls
Regardless, it's clear that Bleaney's efforts to beautify the
to mind dead bodies, especially in the context of the rest of the
property didn't come to much! At the same time, the landlady's
landlady's sentence: tone suggests that she had some fondness and appreciation for
Bleaney. It seems she was willing, like Bleaney, to settle for
[...] He stayed modest comforts—or for what the speaker might view as
The whole time he was at the Bodies, till mediocrity.
They moved him.’ [...]
In lines 3-4, the /f/ alliter
alliteration
ation ("F
Flowered," "ffrayed," "F Fall,"
"They moved him" could mean that his employer transferred "ffive") and /v/ consonance ("fivve," "off") creates a slightly
him elsewhere, but it could also be a euphemism implying that unpleasant sound similar to muttering or cursing. The hard,
Bleaney died and was carried out of the room. (Remember that plosive consonants in the phrase "a sttrip p of build
dingg land
d, /
the landlady is trying to rent the room; she might not want to Tussock cky, litt
ttered
d" (lines 5-6) are downright ugly; they sound as
drive the speaker away by mentioning death outright.) Either tough as the clumps of grass in the yard. These sounds subtly
way, her remark invites thoughts of death and makes the room reinforce the ugliness of the poem's setting
setting.

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LINES 8-10 taking Bleaney's place in other ways. He literally "lie[s] / Where
Bed, upright chair, ... Mr Bleaney lay," physically occupying Bleaney's former
... ‘I’ll take it.’ position, stubbing his cigarettes in the kitschy "saucer-
souvenir" Bleaney used as an ashtray.
These lines mark a turning point in the poem. The speaker
continues listing the unattractive qualities of the room; then, This image also echoes a well-known saying about accepting
suddenly, he decides to rent it anyway. the consequences of your choices: "You've made your bed; now
lie in it." Of course, this kind of acceptance—for better or
The speaker lists the room's few features in the space of eight worse—is what the poem is all about.
syllables: a "Bed" (no adjectives, no frills); an uncomfortable-
sounding "upright chair"; and a weak "sixty-watt bulb," the Although smoking was more common in the 1950s than today,
room's only lighting. Then he notes what's not there: a "hook / this habit, too, seems ominous. It's as if the speaker is burning
away his time, or even slowly killing himself—and not
Behind the door"; "room for books or bags." These details
accomplishing much else in the process. All in all, there's the
illustrate how cramped and unwelcoming the space is. Clearly,
disturbing suggestion that the speaker has accepted Mr.
it's meant to be temporary lodging, not a long-term home—a
Bleaney's fate, and is now living out his life of lonely mediocrity.
fact that makes Bleaney's long tenancy even more poignant,
and the thought of imitating him even more disturbing to the The next detail might suggest that there's some fight left in this
speaker. speaker after all. By "Stuffing [his] ears" to muffle the radio
The /b/ alliter
alliteration
ation in lines 8-9 sounds almost like a sputter of "set" Bleaney liked (and convinced the landlady to buy), the
disgust or indignation: "B Bed," "b
bulb
b," "B
Behind," "b
books," "b
bags." speaker puts some distance between himself and Bleaney.
The speaker's evident disdain for the room makes it all the Maybe he'd rather listen to his own thoughts; maybe he just
more surprising that he then agrees to "take it." In fact, "I'll take hates the radio's mindless "jabbering." (Arguably, there's a whiff
it" is the one sentence he speaks aloud in the poem, almost as if of snobbery here: the speaker seems proud that, unlike his
this decision defines him. predecessor, he doesn't care for trashy mass media.) But even
this detail is ambiguous. The speaker only "tr[ies]" to shut out
The speaker clearly isn't thrilled about the room. (On a the radio; he doesn't necessarily succeed. And in a way, by
recording of the poem, Larkin reads "I'll take it" with a sigh of shutting out the world, he's isolating himself even
resignation.) Why he chooses to rent it anyway is not explained. further—thereby making himself even more Bleaney-like!
The simplest explanation is that he can't afford a better place.
But as the poem goes on, the speaker toys with the more LINES 15-17
uncomfortable idea that he doesn't deserve a better place. He I know his ...
worries that, like Mr. Bleaney, he's settled for this cramped little ... four aways —
"box" due to some flaw in his own "nature": some inherent
Having lived in Bleaney's old lodgings for a while, the speaker
mediocrity or lack of ambition.
has gotten to "know his habits." Most likely, this is because the
LINES 10-14 landlady has continued to tell stories about Bleaney. In lines
So it happens ... 15-17, the speaker shares some of what he's learned: what
... on to buy. time of day Bleaney typically came downstairs, the fact that he
liked sauce better than gravy, and why he gambled on sports.
There's an implied time jump in the middle of line 10, right after ("Kept on plugging at the four aways" means that Bleaney
"I'll take it"; suddenly, the speaker has been occupying the room regularly participated in a betting pool involving "away games"
for a while. It's possible that everything up to this point has in soccer.)
been the speaker's memory of renting the room. Or maybe the
jump from an earlier to a later "present tense" says something The words "I know his habits" could also suggest the speaker
about the experience of living there. Perhaps, in this boring has gained firsthand knowledge of Bleaney's environment. The
speaker may not be literally mimicking Bleaney's habits, but he
room, time seems to stand still.
now understands their context. For example, he probably
The phrase "So it happens that..." has a double connotation
connotation. On doesn't gamble on sports himself, but having lived in this dingy
one level, the speaker, having recounted his talk with the room for a while, he may well understand "why" Bleaney
landlady, is simply saying, "That's how I've come to live here." gambled. Bleaney seems to have hoped for a lucky ticket out of
On another level, "So it happens" sounds almost like his his dreary life, even if he'd given up on other aspirations.
tenancy is the product of chance—something that happened to
The details in these lines also emphasize that Bleaney was a
him rather than something he chose. It's an oddly passive
creature of habit. He lived his life according to a very
phrasing, perhaps comparable to Bleaney's passive acceptance
predictable routine—perhaps one that trapped him, as
of his humdrum life.
gamblers can become trapped in a cycle of gambling. Implicitly,
Having taken Mr. Bleaney's old room, the speaker finds himself

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the speaker fears that he's about to fall into a similar trap—or the frigid wind" blowing through clouds outside, lain on "the
that he already has. fusty bed / Telling himself that this was home," and "grinned" to
Lines 15-17 are part of a long, complex sentence, which himself (delusionally? self-mockingly? with a grimace of pain?)
stretches through line 20 and sets up the even longer sentence while "shiver[ing]" from the cold.
spanning lines 21-28. These twisty, sprawling sentences seem Overall, this is a portrait of a lonely man trying to cheer himself
to fight against the formal regularity of the poem, with its up while living in a chilly, musty-smelling bachelor pad. But
boxlike quatr
quatrains
ains and steady pentameter. Perhaps, in this way, here's the crucial thing: the speaker can imagine Bleaney's
they mirror the speaker's restlessness within his rented "box." reality in such detail because he's now living a version of it
himself. As a result, he knows that even an optimistic,
LINES 18-20 "grinn[ing]" Bleaney might have felt some "dread" in these
Likewise their yearly ... circumstances. The nature of that dread will be revealed in the
... house in Stoke. next stanza; this one leaves the word "dread" hanging in
Lines 18-20 finish the long sentence that began in line 15. ominous suspense.
Here, the speaker notes that he's learned all about Mr. Again, this elaborate sentence seems to push against the
Bleaney's yearly routine as well as his daily habits—suggesting constraints of the poem's form. It sprawls over two
that Bleaney lived in this sad little room for long enough that stanzas—one isn't enough to hold it—and relies on twisty,
the landlady got familiar with his annual schedule. awkward syntax to fit the meter and rhrhyme
yme scheme
scheme. Perhaps
What did his yearly routine look like? Apparently, when on these formal qualities reflect the speaker's restless discomfort
vacation from his job at "the Bodies," Bleaney stayed with within the confines of his tiny room.
"Frinton folk" in the summer and with his sister "in Stoke" at
LINES 25-28
Christmas. "Frinton" refers to the small English beach town of
Frinton-on-Sea, while "Stoke" refers to the small English city of That how we ...
Stoke-on-Trent. Neither is an especially glamorous location, ... I don’t know.
though Frinton would have been a nice enough place to visit in Lines 25-28 conclude the long sentence that began in lines
the summer. 21-24 and conclude the poem as well. The "dread" that Bleaney
Significantly, Bleaney doesn't seem to have been close with may have felt is the fear "That how we live measures our own
anyone in Frinton; he lodged there with unnamed "folk" who nature." In other words, Bleaney may have feared that the
"put him up" (or put up with him?) for a spell. His sister seems to home/life people end up with mirrors their true inner selves,
have been his closest relation—and he saw her only once a year. for better or for worse. ("Measures," in this context, means
something like "mirrors" or "takes the measure of.")
In other words, these details fit the overall portrait of Bleaney's
life as lonely, humdrum, and predictable. His years were bound Listen to the way the poem's meter seems to stumble here:
by a routine "frame," much as his daily life was bound by the
four walls of his tiny room. That how | we liv
livee | mea
measures | our own | na
nature,
Alliter
Alliterativ
ativee repetition underscores the repetitiveness of
This awkward, lumbering line evokes the speaker's own "dread."
Bleaney's life, linking "fframe," "F
Frinton," and "ffolk" in line 18 and
Based on the poem's tone and details, the speaker obviously
"ssister's" and "SStoke" in line 20.
feels that Bleaney's old room is sad and inadequate. But if "how
LINES 21-24 we live measures our own nature," then this living space
reflects something sad and inadequate in Bleaney—and in the
But if he ...
speaker, who's taken Bleaney's place!
... off the dread
One important difference between the speaker and Bleaney is
Lines 21-24 comprise the first half of a long, complex sentence
age. Since the speaker appears to be younger that Bleaney, he
that stretches across two stanzas, all the way through the end
wonders if Bleaney particularly dreaded the thought that, "at
of the poem.
his age," he had nothing but this "hired box" to call his own.
In making sense of this sentence, it helps to read the word "if" ("Hired box" refers to the rented room, which might have been
in line 21 as synonymous with "whether." The basic meaning of a "box room"—a British term for a small storage room in a
lines 21-28 boils down to: But whether Bleaney did [ X], without house. But this description also sounds uncomfortably like a
losing the fear that [Y], I don't know. coffin.) Growing old in such a dump, according to the speaker,
What the speaker imagines Bleaney doing (without knowing if might make someone "pretty sure / He warranted no better."
he actually did it) is pitiful, yet poignant. Specifically, the Of course, this is really a projection of the speaker's own self-
speaker suggests that Bleaney may have "stood and watched doubt. The speaker fears that he's settled for a mediocre

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life—and that he might even deserve it.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:
The final "I don't know" calls back to "I know his habits" in line
15. When reading this phrase aloud for a recording of the • Lines 10-11: “So it happens that I lie / Where Mr
poem, Larkin stressed the word "don't." The idea is that the Bleaney lay”
speaker does know about Bleaney's daily and yearly routine, but • Lines 22-23: “lay on the fusty bed / Telling himself that
doesn't know whether Bleaney escaped a feeling of dread about this was home”
it all. At the same time, it's strongly implied that the
speaker—Bleaney's successor—feels that dread himself.
POETIC DEVICES
SYMBOLS IRONY
Larkin's poems are often laced with iron
ironyy, and "Mr Bleaney" is
GARDEN no exception: a series of ironic moments give the poem its dark
humor.
Gardens are symbolically associated with cultivation,
growth, vitality, and life itself. Idioms such as "tend For example, in lines 5-7, this juxtaposition of image and
one's own garden," "cultivate oneself," and "reap what you sow" dialogue is jarringly ironic:
link gardening and planting with the life or fate one shapes for
oneself. Gardens can also be associated with paradise, as in the [...] Whose window shows a strip of building land,
biblical Garden of Eden. Tussocky, littered. ‘Mr Bleaney took
My bit of garden properly in hand.’
In this poem, the landlady claims that "Mr Bleaney took / My bit
of garden properly in hand"—that is, helped her improve her
garden. But there's no indication of anything beautiful growing Maybe the landlady is kidding herself; maybe her garden is
outside her house. The window shows only a pitiful "strip of dead now that Mr. Bleaney isn't there to take care of it; maybe
building land," both "Tussocky" (full of grass clumps) and her garden is dwarfed by the rest of the ugly view. Regardless,
"littered" (strewn with trash or debris). Either the garden as the speaker looks out at grass clumps and litter, the
consists of an ugly lot outside an ugly room (ironically
ironically, pretty landlady's praise of the view contradicts the reader's
much the opposite of a paradise), or it's just a small corner of expectations. (If anything, you'd expect her to make an excuse
that ugly lot. for it, or not mention it at all.)

Thus, Mr. Bleaney's garden comes to symbolize mediocrity, Lines 7-9 contain a bit of situational irony:
failure, and wasted potential—a life that never really amounts
to much. Bed, upright chair, sixty-watt bulb, no hook
Behind the door, no room for books or bags —
‘I’ll take it.’
Where this symbol appears in the poem:
• Lines 5-7: “Whose window shows a strip of building land, After the speaker has listed all the unattractive features of the
/ Tussocky, littered. ‘Mr Bleaney took / My bit of garden room, he does what you'd least expect: rents the place anyway.
properly in hand.’”
There's also a touch of dr
dramatic
amatic iron
ironyy in the detail about
Bleaney's gambling habit ("He kept on plugging at the four
BED aways"). Bleaney's bets couldn't have paid off much: he clearly
never won enough to escape this awful housing! Along with the
Much like "You reap what you sow," the idiom "You've speaker, the reader knows that Bleaney's hopes for a lucky
made your bed; now lie in it" refers to living with the break were in vain.
consequences of your choices. The poem plays on this symbolic
link between one's bed and one's fate. Finally, the idea of Bleaney "Telling himself that this was home"
carries an ironic charge. The reader understands that, if
The speaker's lying down in Mr. Bleaney's "fusty" old bed, after Bleaney really did tell himself this, he was sadly mistaken (at
deciding to rent Bleaney's old room, unsettlingly suggests that least from the speaker's perspective)—and in the speaker's
he's chosen a fate similar to Bleaney's—in fact, practically taken imagination, he felt "dread" even as he told himself this. This
over Bleaney's mediocre life. The idea that Bleaney might have lonely, bare space isn't a "home" in any true sense of the word.
lain there "Telling himself that this was home" makes it seem
that he outwardly reconciled himself to his sad fate—and that
Where Iron
Ironyy appears in the poem:
he was, on some level, fooling himself.

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• Lines 5-7: “Whose window shows a strip of building land, • Line 28: “no,” “know”
/ Tussocky, littered. ‘Mr Bleaney took / My bit of garden
properly in hand.’” ALLITERATION
• Lines 8-10: “Bed, upright chair, sixty-watt bulb, no hook /
"Mr Bleaney" uses frequent alliter
alliteration
ation to link words and ideas
Behind the door, no room for books or bags — / ‘I’ll take
it.’” together, and sometimes to create unpleasant sounds that
• Line 23: “Telling himself that this was home” match the poem's unpleasant setting.
For example, the four /f/ words in lines 3-4 ("F Flowered curtains,
REPETITION thin and frayed, / Fall to within five inches of the sill") give the
verse a muttering or cursing sound; you can almost hear the
"Mr Bleaney" uses repetition
repetition, and especially par
parallel
allel structure
structure,
speaker grumbling under his breath as he surveys the grim
to convey the numbing repetitiveness of Bleaney's routine.
decor.
In lines 15-17, for example, the speaker ticks off a list of
Likewise, listen to the many /b/ words in lines 8-9 :
Bleaney's habits in a string of parallel clauses:
Bed, upright chair, sixty-watt bulb
b, no hook
[...] what time he came down,
Behind the door, no room for books or bags
His preference for sauce to gravy, wh
whyy
He kept on plugging at the four aways — All those /b/ sounds are like a vehement sputter of indignation
at the terrible room.
The weary tone of this parallelism suggests that the speaker is
more than a little tired of hearing about all Mr. Bleaney's Meanwhile, the simple "llie"/"llay" alliteration in lines 10-11 ("I lie
habits—and that those habits were in themselves pretty / Where Mr Bleaney lay") strengthens the link between the two
deadening. men and their actions.

Meanwhile, in the next-to-last stanza, the speaker speculates And the hissing, onomatopoeic sibilance of lines 11-12 ("and
on things Bleaney might have done, using a series of parallel stub my fags / On the same sauccer-ssouvenir") has an
verbs: "stood," "watched," "lay," "grinned," "shivered." Most of unpleasant hiss that evokes exactly what the speaker's
these verbs are joined with polysyndeton
polysyndeton, a long list of "and"s describing: a cigarette getting stubbed out.
that seem to pile one weary action on top of another: "stood Alliterative /f/ and /s/ sounds link "F
Frinton folk" and
and watched [...] and grinned, / And shivered." These lists "ssister's"/"S
Stoke" in lines 18 and 20, tightening the connection
provide a kind of inventory of Bleaney's (and the speaker's) life, between these people and their places of residence.
in all its sparseness and deadening routine. (Remember, this poem plays with the idea that where you live
Another important repetition in the poem is the frequent use of reflects your identity!) "Frinton folk" also alliterates with
the homophones "no" and "know." Along with two appearances "frame" (line 18), and "sister's"/"Stoke" adds to a larger pattern
in lines 8-9 ("no
no hook / Behind the door, no room for books or of sibilance in lines 19-20. The consistency of the sounds in this
bags"), they crop up in lines 15 ("I know his habits"), line 26 stanza helps evoke Bleaney's consistent routine.
("having no more to show"), and together in the final line ("He In line 24, alliteration marks an intuitive connection between
warranted no better, I don't know
know"). These words crystallize "sh
shiver[ing]" and "shshaking," but also marks a distinction:
several of the poem's themes: knowledge (the speaker begins Bleaney may have shivered in his room, but that doesn't mean
to understand Bleaney's life), deprivation ("no" is applied to he shook off his underlying fear.
things Bleaney lacked), and the knowledge of deprivation.
Where Alliter
Alliteration
ation appears in the poem:
Where Repetition appears in the poem:
• Line 3: “Flowered,” “frayed”
• Line 8: “no” • Line 4: “Fall,” “five”
• Line 9: “no” • Line 8: “Bed,” “bulb”
• Line 15: “know,” “what time he came down,” • Line 9: “Behind,” “books,” “bags”
• Lines 16-17: “why / He kept on plugging at the four • Line 10: “lie”
aways —” • Line 11: “lay,” “stub”
• Lines 21-24: “stood and watched the frigid wind / • Line 12: “same saucer-souvenir”
Tousling the clouds, lay on the fusty bed / Telling himself • Line 18: “frame,” “Frinton folk”
that this was home, and grinned, / And shivered,” • Line 20: “sister’s,” “Stoke”
• Line 26: “no” • Line 21: “watched,” “wind”

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the landlady shows the speaker Mr. Bleaney's old room:
• Line 24: “shivered,” “shaking”
[...] He stayed
ASSONANCE The whole time he was at the Bodies, || till
The poem uses assonance (and some internal rh rhyme
yme) for a They moved him.’ || Flowered curtains, thin and
variety of subtle effects. In lines 3-6, for example, heavy frayed,
assonance on the short /i/ vowel ties together the description
of the room's window and view: The hesitant pause in line 2 leads into an abrupt mid-line period
in line 3. This heavy break might suggest that the landlady is
[...] Flowered curtai ains, thiin and frayed, delicately sharing heavy news: Bleaney died here.
Fall to wiithiin five inches of the siill, Another caesura in line 10 has a similar dramatic effect:
Whose wiindow shows a striip of bui uildiing land,
Tussocky, liittered. ‘I’ll take it.’ || So it happens that I lie

In English, the short /i/ vowel is associated with many words The mid-line period here makes the speaker's words feel
describing smallness or meagerness—like "thiin," "iinches," and jarring, heightening the reader's surprise over the speaker's
"striip" here, but also "liittle," "stiingy," "wiispy," "iitty-biitty," etc. As decision to rent the room. Perhaps the speaker himself is a little
it repeats, it seems to extend the sense of thinness, surprised that he's chosen to take this dreary, mediocre path.
meagerness, and inadequacy over the whole description. And consider the caesura in the very last lines:
Later, short /i/ sounds also strengthen the link between
adjective and noun in "friigiid wiind" (line 21) and suggest a close Than one hired box should make him pretty sure
connection between "griinned" and "shiivered" in lines 23-24. He warranted no better
better,, || I don’t know.
(The idea of Bleaney grinning in this awful room is as eerie as
the idea of him shivering. Both actions might be prompted by This caesura marks a dramatic pause after the very long clause
fear.) In the same stanza, assonance bridges the verb "Tou ousling" in lines 26-28. It comes just before the poem's last three words,
and its object, "clou
ouds" (line 22), adding extra emphasis to "I don't know," making them sound all the more crisp and
already stressed syllables and evoking the disruptive force of emphatic.
the wind. Caesurae thus give the poem some of its emotional punch.
Long /o/ sounds link "no o" and "show
ow" in line 26, as well as "no
o,"
"do
on't," and "kno
ow" in line 28. Here, assonance and internal Where Caesur
Caesuraa appears in the poem:
rhyme draw out the sound of "no" over multiple syllables (the
• Line 1: “room. He”
last word of the poem, "know," is even a homophone of "no").
• Line 2: “Bodies, till”
They contribute to the final stanza's emphasis on negation and • Line 3: “him.’ Flowered,” “curtains, thin”
deprivation. • Line 6: “Tussocky, littered. ‘Mr”
• Line 8: “Bed, upright chair, sixty-watt bulb, no”
Where Assonance appears in the poem: • Line 9: “door, no”
• Line 3: “curtains,” “thin” • Line 10: “it.’ So”
• Line 4: “within,” “inches,” “sill” • Line 11: “lay, and”
• Line 5: “window,” “strip,” “building” • Line 12: “souvenir, and”
• Line 6: “littered” • Line 13: “wool, to”
• Line 21: “frigid wind” • Line 15: “habits — what”
• Line 22: “Tousling,” “clouds” • Line 16: “gravy, why”
• Line 23: “grinned” • Line 18: “frame: the”
• Line 24: “shivered” • Line 22: “clouds, lay”
• Line 26: “no,” “show” • Line 23: “ home, and”
• Line 28: “no,” “don’t know” • Line 24: “shivered, without”
• Line 28: “better, I”
CAESURA
ENJAMBMENT
The many caesur
caesuras
as in "Mr Bleaney" help to evoke the
characters' emotions. giving the poem some of its drama. "Mr Bleaney" makes extensive use of enjambment
enjambment. Fully half of
its lines (14 out of 28) are enjambed. In general, this effect
For instance, take a look at the caesuras in lines 2-3, in which

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creates a restless tension within the verse, as if its sentences
are fighting against the meter and rh
rhyme
yme scheme
scheme. The • Lines 26-27: “show / Than”
speaker's thoughts keep sprawling over the line and stanza • Lines 27-28: “sure / He”
breaks; they seem to need more room, to want to escape their
box-like stanzas (and the word "stanza" derives from the Italian APORIA
for "room"). These formal elements reflect the speaker's Aporia is the expression of doubt or uncertainty for rhetorical
apparent desire to escape his dull routine and tiny room. effect. Often the uncertainty is feigned (as when someone
Some of the poem's enjambments also have more specific begins a sentence, "I'm not sure how to say this, but"—and then
effects, creating special emphasis or suggesting a certain tone
tone. says something perfectly clear and articulate). The ending of
For instance, take a look at the way the enjambments work in "Mr Bleaney" expresses just this kind of feigned uncertainty.
the first few lines of the poem: In the poem's final line, the speaker claims that "I don't know"
whether Bleaney had the experiences and feelings described in
‘This was Mr Bleaney’s room. He sta
stayyed lines 21-28—specifically, whether he experienced this sad room
The whole time he was at the Bodies, till and lifestyle "without shaking off the dread" that he somehow
The
Theyy moved him.’ deserved it. But the speaker's portrayal of this dread is so vivid
that it's fairly clear he does know—or at least believe—that
In line 1 here, "He stayed" seems to hang in the air for a Bleaney experienced it. And since he's taken Bleaney's place,
moment. On closer inspection, this simple statement seems there's the strong implication that he now knows that dread
true of Mr. Bleaney: his haunting presence seems to have firsthand.
lingered here. Then, in line 2, the pause after "till" may reflect
the landlady's hesitation as she decides how to mention It's still possible to read some ambiguity into that closing "I
Bleaney's death, as if she's trying to find the right euphemistic don't know." The speaker never actually met Bleaney, so it's
words. possible that Bleaney really was happy with his life, however
pitiable it may seem from the outside. But to the extent that the
And take a look at the enjambment in lines 10-11:
speaker fears becoming like Bleaney, "I don't know" is a kind of
emotional dodge. Whatever Bleaney felt about his room and his
[...] So it happens that I lie
life, it's clear by now that the speaker considers them dreadful.
Where Mr Bleaney lay, [...]
Where Aporia appears in the poem:
The attention the enjambment here draws to the word "lie"
hints at a double meaning. The speaker's lying down, but maybe, • Lines 21-28: “But if he stood and watched the frigid
in some sense, he's also lying to himself. (He's just said "I'll take wind / Tousling the clouds, lay on the fusty bed / Telling
it," meaning that he's accepted the room: but maybe, in a himself that this was home, and grinned, / And shivered,
deeper sense, he doesn't accept this fate for himself.) without shaking off the dread / That how we live
measures our own nature, / And at his age having no
And the strong enjambment that leaves the word "dread"
more to show / Than one hired box should make him
dangling alone at the end of the sixth stanza creates a bit of
pretty sure / He warranted no better, I don’t know.”
unnerving suspense—dread of what?—while conveying the
heaviness of the dread itself.

Where Enjambment appears in the poem:

VOCABULARY
• Lines 1-2: “stayed / The” The Bodies (Line 2) - "The Bodies" appears to be a nickname
• Lines 2-3: “till / They” for Mr. Bleaney's workplace. It may relate to auto bodies, as in
• Lines 6-7: “took / My” the Carbodies manufacturing plant in Larkin's hometown of
• Lines 8-9: “hook / Behind” Coventry, England. (Mentioned just before a reference to
• Lines 10-11: “lie / Where” Bleaney's death, the name also evokes dead bodies.)
• Lines 12-13: “try / Stuffing” Tussocky (Line 6) - Filled with tussocks, or clumps of grass.
• Lines 13-14: “drown / The”
• Lines 16-17: “why / He” Fags (Line 11) - British slang for cigarettes.
• Lines 18-19: “folk / Who” Saucer-souvenir (Line 12) - A saucer bought as a souvenir
• Lines 21-22: “wind / Tousling” from somewhere. In other words, it's probably tacky and fairly
• Lines 22-23: “bed / Telling” cheap, not fine china. (After all, both Bleaney and the speaker
• Lines 24-25: “dread / That” use it as an ashtray.)

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Set (Line 14) - A radio. "Mr Bleaney" was written in the Behind
hind | the door
door, | no room | for books | or bags —
mid-1950s, when radios remained very popular as home
entertainment and were sometimes called "sets," similar to the The poem's passages of perfect iambic pentameter—all of
term "TV sets."(TVs were also starting to become household stanza 3, for instance, in which the speaker lies smoking in Mr.
items in the 1950s, at least in wealthier homes, so "set" could Bleaney's old bed—help to evoke the strictures of the speaker's
refer to a TV. However, the landlady of this cheap boarding little room and Mr. Bleaney's little life. The meter in those
house seems unlikely to have sprung for a television. Also, the passages feels as monotonously predictable as Mr. Bleaney's
actual house that seems to have inspired Larkin's poem day-to-day existence.
contained a radio, not a TV, that annoyed him!) But the poem often plays with this meter, varying stresses and
Four aways (Line 17) - "The four aways" refers to a gambling rhythms. This variation gives readers the sense that the
pool in which bettors wagered on "away games" in soccer. That speaker is internally rebelling, kicking out against Mr. Bleaney's
Mr. Bleaney "kept on plugging at" them indicates that he fate—a fate he feels he might be trapped in, too.
habitually gambled on sports. For instance, take a look at the way the rhythm changes in line
Frinton/Stoke (Line 18, Line 20) - "Frinton" and "Stoke" are UK 25:
place names. Frinton-on-Sea is a small beach town in southeast
England; Stoke-on-Trent is a city in the West Midlands of That how | we liv
livee | mea
measures | our own | na
nature,
England.
Tousling (Line 22) - Messing up or disheveling (often used to This odd, awkward rhythm has two effects. First, it seems to
describe mussing up someone's hair). reflect the "dread" the speaker mentions in the previous line, as
if the meter itself is rattled. Second, it calls special attention to
Fusty (Line 22) - Musty or stale.
this line, which encapsulates the speaker's anxiety about
Hired (Line 27) - Here, a synonym for "rented," as in the whether he deserves his mediocre fate—one of the poem's
speaker's rented, box-like room. major themes.
Warranted (Line 28) - Deserved or merited.
RHYME SCHEME
"Mr Bleaney" is written in quatr
quatrains
ains that follow an ABAB rh
rhyme
yme
FORM, METER, & RHYME scheme
scheme. This simple, foursquare scheme suits the poem's
setting: a sparse little "box" of a room.
FORM Nearly all the poem's rhymes are both exact and masculine: that
"Mr Bleaney" consists of seven quatrains, or four-line stanzas, is, they rhyme on a stressed final syllable (e.g., "stayed"/"frayed,"
laid out with a kind of measured regularity that mirrors the as opposed to a feminine rhyme like "calling"/"falling," whose
regularity of Bleaney's—and the speaker's—routine. Its four- rhyme words end on an unstressed syllable). These "masculine"
line stanzas impose tight formal constraints, like the four walls endings, too, give the verse a rigid, foursquare quality, with no
of a confining room. (In fact, the word "stanza" derives from the softening extra syllables. They may even tie in thematically with
Italian for "room," so Larkin may be playing on this connection.) the stereotypical maleness of the speaker's bachelor pad.
The poem unfolds within strict limits, much like Bleaney's and The lone exception comes with the imperfect rhyme in lines 25
the speaker's lives. and 27, which rhymes an unstressed with a stressed syllable:
At the same time, the poem's occasional metrical variations,
along with its frequent enjambments and caesur
caesuras
as, add That how we live measures our own nature [...]
elements of surprise that keep the verse from becoming Than one hired box should make him pretty sure
unbearably monotonous. In this way, they reflect the speaker's
resistance to the monotonous routines that trapped Bleaney. The slight break from the rhyme pattern (and the variation in
Similarly, the syntax of the final sentence (lines 21-28) is the meter in line 25) draws extra attention to this line, which
contorted, as if straining against the poem's formal sums up the poem's central question.
limits—much as the speaker strains against the limits of his
room.
SPEAKER
METER
"Mr Bleaney" is built on a foundation of iambic pentameter. Biographical evidence, like letters to friends, makes it clear that
That is, each line generally uses five iambs, metrical feet with a Philip Larkin based "Mr Bleaney" on an actual room he rented
da-DUM
DUM rhythm, like this: in Hull, England, during the 1950s. At the time, Larkin was in his
early 30s, unmarried (as he would remain), working as a

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librarian, and still establishing his literary career. During this "hired box"—language that uncomfortably evokes a coffin.
period, he lived in bedsits: single-occupant rooms rented within
a larger house. Like the setting of the poem, the house where
he wrote "Mr Bleaney" was suburban, run by a landlady—and CONTEXT
contained a radio that annoyed him!
LITERARY CONTEXT
It's reasonable to imagine, then, that the speaker is based partly
on Larkin himself, even if some of the poem's details are From the publication of his second collection, The Less Deceived,
imagined or exaggerated. in 1955 until his death in 1985, Philip Larkin was one of the
UK's most popular poets. The editor-critic J. D. Scott grouped
From the poem alone, it's clear that the speaker is unattached
Larkin, along with a number of other post-World War II English
(he's living alone in a tiny, single-occupant room), that he
writers (including Larkin's close friend Kingsley Amis), into a
smokes (he uses Bleaney's old saucer-ashtray), and that he lives
school he called "The Movement." The Movement poets
a rather austere life (he's able to take a room with no space for
rejected many of the formal and stylistic experiments of the
"books or bags," even if he might prefer otherwise). Unlike
previous, Modernist generation. They adopted a plainer style
Bleaney, he doesn't enjoy the radio, apparently preferring to
along with characteristically English themes—as evidenced by a
listen to his own thoughts. In general, it's clear from the
poem like "Mr Bleaney," a frank portrait of lonely bachelorhood
speaker's judgmental language that he dislikes this room—or
in suburban England.
"hired box"—even though he decides to rent it. He feels ill at
ease, and perhaps adrift in life. Larkin wrote "Mr Bleaney" in spring 1955 and published it in
the journal The Listener that fall. It was first collected in Larkin's
Though the poem doesn't give specifics about the speaker's
1964 book The Whitsun Weddings. Along with several other
profession or personal situation, it expresses his fear of ending
well-known poems from that collection—including "Dockery
up a lonely mediocrity like Bleaney. In acknowledging "the
and Son," "Sunny Prestatyn," and the title poem—it captures a
dread / That how we live measures our own nature," he hints at
slice of post-WWII English life, finding ominous or unsettling
a desire to live better, aim higher, and escape Bleaney's fate.
overtones in ordinary situations.
These poems' general attitude is one of blunt realism bordering
SETTING on bleak cynicism (though some, including "An An Arundel TTomb
omb"
and "The
The Whitsun W Weddings
eddings" itself, contain redemptive notes
The poem's setting is a rented room in a bedsit or boarding as well). This attitude became strongly associated with Larkin,
house, which seems to be located on an unimpressive plot of who gained a reputation as both a brilliant stylist and a literary
"building land" in a suburban neighborhood. The room was curmudgeon. He once famously claimed that "Deprivation is for
previously occupied by an old bachelor named "Mr Bleaney," me what daffodils were for [William] Wordsworth." In other
who died there. The property is run by a landlady (the speaker words, the kind of loneliness and lack explored in "Mr Bleaney"
of lines 1-3 and 6-7, as well as the "her" in line 14), who got to were his signature poetic subject.
know Bleaney over the years and recounts his habits to the
From biographical evidence, including letters to friends, it's
speaker.
clear that "Mr Bleaney" was based on—and written in—an
The room—apparently based on the real one Larkin was renting actual room Larkin rented in Hull, England, in 1955. The room
at the time he wrote the poem—is bare, cramped, and drab. It was part of a bedsit, a type of cheap boarding house. Larkin
has a single window with a shabby curtain and a view of ugly, spoke well of the house's landlady, really did complain about its
"littered" turf. It contains sparse furnishings and dim lighting "blasted RADIO," and moved to other lodging after a few
("Bed, upright chair, sixty-watt bulb") and has little or no space months. Whether or not he felt exactly as the speaker of "Mr
for personal items ("no hook / Behind the door, no room for Bleaney" feels, he got out of there as soon as he could.
books or bags").
Both the room and the house still bear traces of Mr. Bleaney's HISTORICAL CONTEXT
presence: the "saucer-souvenir" he used as an ashtray, the Following the hardships of World War II, along with the first
"fusty bed" that may still carry a whiff of its former occupant, phase of the decolonization movement that dissolved the
and the "jabbering" of the radio he convinced the landlady to British Empire, the UK found itself in reduced circumstances.
buy. Of course, the landlady's stories about Bleaney are a Having narrowly avoided bankruptcy after the war, Britain was
reminder of his tenancy, too. slow to recover economically and entered an "age of austerity"
Though the speaker decides to "take" the room, he clearly that included rationing of food and raw materials. Prosperity
doesn't feel at home there. In fact, he mockingly imagines returned to the country during the 1950s, when Larkin wrote
Bleaney "Telling himself that this was home." The room's "Mr Bleaney," but the memory of wartime belt-tightening
oppressive dinginess makes the speaker feel as if he's living in a remained, along with the sense that Britain's days as a global

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superpower were over. • The PPoet
oet Reads the P
Poem
oem — Listen to Larkin reading "Mr
Larkin was an Oxford University graduate from an affluent Bleaney" with a short introduction.
middle-class family, so he didn't share the apparent working- (https:/
(https://www
/www..youtube.com/watch?v=o-AbE0Z
outube.com/watch?v=o-AbE0ZqFF qFFA)
A)
class background of his "Mr Bleaney" character. (Arguably, • A Biogr
Biograph
aphyy of the P
Poet
oet — Learn more about Larkin's life
there's a touch of class snobbery in Larkin's portrait of both and work at the Poetry Foundation.
Bleaney and his living space.) But his generation witnessed (https:/
(https://www
/www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/philip-larkin)
.poetryfoundation.org/poets/philip-larkin)
both the austerity years and the subsequent boom
• Larkin at the British Libr
Library
ary — Browse the resources of the
years—which brought, for example, a nationwide increase in
Philip Larkin Collection at the British Library.
home ownership, buoyed by government investment in the
(https:/
(https://www
/www.bl.uk/collection-guides/philip-larkin#)
.bl.uk/collection-guides/philip-larkin#)
construction of new homes—and his poetry reflects its time
and place in many subtle ways. LITCHARTS ON OTHER PHILIP LARKIN POEMS
Like the speaker of "Mr Bleaney," Larkin lived for a while in • Afternoons
bedsits (a.k.a. bed-sitting rooms), a form of cheap lodging • An Arundel TTomb
omb
whose popularity in Britain increased after the war. Bedsits • A Study of Reading Habits
also appeared in other British literature and media of the • Church Going
period: for example, the plays The Room (Harold Pinter, 1957) • Coming
and The Bed-Sitting Room (1963, Spike Milligan and John • MCMXIV
Antrobus). However, Larkin—like many Britons during the • Poetry of Departures
postwar decades of renewed prosperity—evidently aspired to • The T
Trees
rees
better circumstances. He eventually moved into a more • The Whitsun WWeddings
eddings
spacious flat in Hull, where he remained for nearly two • This Be The V
Verse
erse
decades, and eventually bought his own house in 1974. Still, for • Water
most of his career, he lived modestly (despite his growing
literary fame), and he remained a bachelor until he died.
HOW T
TO
O CITE
In some ways, then, Larkin's upward-striving impulses mirrored
those of his generation—and of the "Mr Bleaney" speaker, to
the extent that he feels dissatisfied. But perhaps Larkin's more MLA
modest, hermit-like impulses mirrored another side of the Allen, Austin. "Mr Bleaney." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 14 Jun 2021.
"Bleaney" speaker—the side that chooses to live alone in a small Web. 22 Aug 2022.
room.
CHICAGO MANUAL
Allen, Austin. "Mr Bleaney." LitCharts LLC, June 14, 2021.
MORE RESOUR
RESOURCES
CES Retrieved August 22, 2022. https://www.litcharts.com/poetry/
philip-larkin/mr-bleaney.
EXTERNAL RESOURCES
• A Larkin Documentary — Watch the 2003 documentary
"Philip Larkin: Love and Death in Hull."
(https:/
(https://www
/www..youtube.com/watch?v=dqa6L22m0rY)

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