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Philip Larkin

Philip Larkin

Is It for Now Or for Always

Is it for now or for always,
The world hangs on a stalk?
Is it a trick or a trysting—place,
The woods we have found to walk?
 
Is it a mirage or miracle,
Your lips that lift at mine:
And the suns like a juggler’s juggling—balls,
Are they a sham or a sign?
 
Shine out, my sudden angel,
Break fear with breast and brow,
I take you now and for always,
For always is always now.

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They fuck you up, your mum and dad… They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they… And add some extra, just for you. But they were fucked up in their t…
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The Whitsun Weddings

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Grief

If grief could burn out Like a sunken coal The heart would rest quiet The unrent soul Be as still as a veil
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Annus Mirabilis

Sexual intercourse began In nineteen sixty-three (which was rather late for me)— Between the end of the Chatterley… And the Beatles’ first LP.
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Light spreads darkly downwards fro… Clusters of lights over empty chai… That face each other, coloured dif… Through open doors, the dining—roo… A larger loneliness of knives and…
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At once whatever happened starts r… Panting, and back on board, we lin… With trousers ripped, light wallet… Yes, gone, thank God! Remembering… We toss for half the night, but fi…
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Home is so sad. It stays as it wa… Shaped in the comfort of the last… As if to win them back. Instead,… Of anyone to please, it withers so… Having no heart to put aside the t…
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The Ludwigskirche in Munich, by Wassily Kandinsky
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Once I am sure there’s nothing go… I step inside, letting the door th… Another church: matting, seats, an… And little books; sprawlings of fl… For Sunday, brownish now; some br…
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What do they think has happened, t… To make them like this? Do they s… It’s more grown-up when your mouth… And you keep on pissing yourself,… Who called this morning? Or that,…



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