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"I Remember, I Remember" by Larkin should resonate with anyone who has moved from a small town they hated, and in adult life relocated again, or for some other reason came to the conclusion that you can't move away from your problems.
The whole poem is available here: http://www.rswheeldon.com/wierd/nothing.html
My favorite parts:
> "'Was that,' my friend smiled, 'where you "have your roots"?'
> No, only where my childhood was unspent,"
and the finale:
> 'You look as though you wished the place in Hell,'
> My friend said, 'judging from your face.' 'Oh well,
> I suppose it's not the place's fault,' I said.
> 'Nothing, like something, happens anywhere.'
That last line has been almost life-altering for me, because it's such an obvious, fundamental truth that passes many (myself included) by. You really have very many options to improve, or ruin, your life, regardless of where you wish to spend it.
I'd probably make a mistake not to mention for those unaware that Larkin is also the author of the relatively famous and excellent "they fuck you up, your mom and dad"-poem ("This Be The Verse"): https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48419/this-be-the-ver...
Interestingly, that last line is almost rhythmically (is that the right word?) to the last line of Larkin's Aubade.
> Nothing, like something, happens anywhere.
> Postmen, like doctors, go from house to house.
Steady! mum and dad :)
I can't help wondering if the Yorkshire librarian scowling at modernity would have come out in hives at the Americanism.
Great call though, it's short enough and easy enough for somebody new to Larkin to hook into. I'd paste it all here but not sure on the legality.
Pithily miserablist; Morrissey for the page...
I guess my excuse is that English isn't my first language, so I blame my occasional slip-up between BE and AE on the ever present American English in my life through 99,9 % of all the text and media I consume. I actually hadn't thought about "mum" being a British variant, but now that you mention it it's suddenly glaringly obvious.
I always thought causality runs the other way - kids screw up their parents.... (certainly I didn't appreciate the horrors I inflicted on my parents until I was myself a parent).
If you ask me, parents have a responsibility to raise their kids that is orders of magnitude larger than the "responsibility" of the child to behave. Parents are adults with fully developed brains and their own agency, children are hard-coded to test limits and are literally incapable of planning their future, fully understanding the feelings of others, the consequences of their actions, and much more, unless parents or adults teach them. In the vast majority of cases, children not behaving is a direct consequence of the behavior of the parent (and/or other adults close to the child).
The critic Clive James that is mentioned was enormously funny and productive. He died very recently.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48422/aubade-56d229a6...
I work all day, and get half-drunk at night.
Waking at four to soundless dark, I stare.
:
:
Meanwhile telephones crouch, getting ready to ring
:
I've always loved that description of old style dial phones.
Pretty much every line is quotable though - a wonderful, if melancholy-at-times plain-speaking poet.
No mention of 'The Whitsun Weddings' in the article. An astonishingly good poem. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9eTF6QNsxA
Thank you for this unexpected gem on a Wednesday morning.