{"id":140,"date":"2010-11-19T18:43:23","date_gmt":"2010-11-19T23:43:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/?p=140"},"modified":"2010-11-19T21:56:51","modified_gmt":"2010-11-20T02:56:51","slug":"philip-larkin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/2010\/140\/poems\/philip-larkin\/","title":{"rendered":"Philip Larkin – Aubade"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

I work all day, and get half-drunk at night.
\nWaking at four to soundless dark, I stare.
\nIn time the curtain-edges will grow light.
\nTill then I see what’s really always there:
\nUnresting death, a whole day nearer now,
\nMaking all thought impossible but how
\nAnd where and when I shall myself die.
\nArid interrogation: yet the dread
\nOf dying, and being dead,
\nFlashes afresh to hold and horrify.<\/p>\n

The mind blanks at the glare. Not in remorse
\n\u2014The good not done, the love not given, time
\nTorn off unused\u2014nor wretchedly because
\nAn only life can take so long to climb
\nClear of its wrong beginnings, and may never;
\nBut at the total emptiness for ever,
\nThe sure extinction that we travel to
\nAnd shall be lost in always. Not to be here,
\nNot to be anywhere,
\nAnd soon; nothing more terrible, nothing more true.<\/p>\n

This is a special way of being afraid
\nNo trick dispels. Religion used to try,
\nThat vast moth-eaten musical brocade
\nCreated to pretend we never die,
\nAnd specious stuff that says No rational being
\nCan fear a thing it will not feel<\/em>, not seeing
\nThat this is what we fear\u2014no sight, no sound,
\nNo touch or taste or smell, nothing to think with,
\nNothing to love or link with,
\nThe anaesthetic from which none come round.<\/p>\n

And so it stays just on the edge of vision,
\nA small unfocused blur, a standing chill
\nThat slows each impulse down to indecision.
\nMost things may never happen: this one will,
\nAnd realisation of it rages out
\nIn furnace-fear when we are caught without
\nPeople or drink. Courage is no good:
\nIt means not scaring others. Being brave
\nLets no one off the grave.
\nDeath is no different whined at than withstood.<\/p>\n

Slowly light strengthens, and the room takes shape.
\nIt stands plain as a wardrobe, what we know,
\nHave always known, know that we can’t escape,
\nYet can’t accept. One side will have to go.
\nMeanwhile telephones crouch, getting ready to ring
\nIn locked-up offices, and all the uncaring
\nIntricate rented world begins to rouse.
\nThe sky is white as clay, with no sun.
\nWork has to be done.
\nPostmen like doctors go from house to house.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I work all day, and get half-drunk at night. Waking at four to soundless dark, I stare. In time the curtain-edges will grow light. Till then I see what’s really always there: Unresting death, a whole day nearer now, Making all thought impossible but how And where and when I shall myself die. Arid interrogation: […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poems","category-4-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":234,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140\/revisions\/234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}