Sad Steps

Groping back to bed after a piss

I part thick curtains, and am startled by

The rapid clouds, the moon's cleanliness.

Four o'clock: wedge-shadowed gardens lie

Under a cavernous, a wind-picked sky.

There's something laughable about this,

The way the moon dashes through clouds that blow

Loosely as cannon-smoke to stand apart

(Stone-coloured light sharpening the roofs below)

High and preposterous and separate -

Lozenge of love! Medallion of art!

O wolves of memory! Immensements! No,

One shivers slightly, looking up there.

The hardness and the brightness and the plain

Far-reaching singleness of that wide stare

Is a reminder of the strength and pain

Of being young; that it can't come again,

But is for others undiminished somewhere.

High Windows

When I see a couple of kids

And guess he's fucking her and she's

Taking pills or wearing a diaphragm,

I know this is paradise

Everyone old has dreamed of all their lives--

Bonds and gestures pushed to one side

Like an outdated combine harvester,

And everyone young going down the long slide

To happiness, endlessly. I wonder if

Anyone looked at me, forty years back,

And thought, That'll be the life;

No God any more, or sweating in the dark

About hell and that, or having to hide

What you think of the priest. He

And his lot will all go down the long slide

Like free bloody birds. And immediately

Rather than words comes the thought of high windows:

The sun-comprehending glass,

And beyond it, the deep blue air, that shows

Nothing, and is nowhere, and is endless.

This Be The Verse

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.

They may not mean to, but they do.

They fill you with the faults they had

And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn

By fools in old-style hats and coats,

Who half the time were soppy-stern

And half at one another's throats.

Man hands on misery to man.

It deepens like a coastal shelf.

Get out as early as you can,

And don't have any kids yourself.

The poem that I am going to analyse is “Sad Steps” in relation to the poem “High Windows” and “This Be The Verse” by Pillip Larkin.

Firstly, the main topic of “Sad Steps” is that the youth that we probably do not appreciate when we have it, causes a great sorrow that we suffer when we lose it. The first stanza of the poem is introducing the situation that he is about to live in the context of his bedroom at night. The scene that the poet is describing is like a picture in which we could see a man looking at the outside of his bedroom at the dark night while he becomes engrossed in his thoughts.

In the next four stanzas, Larkin is describing the scenery that he has in front of his eyes, talking about the moonlight that illuminates the gardens and the roofs (wedge-shadowed gardens lie…stone-coloured light sharpening the roofs below; second and third stanzas). He talks about the moon as an elegant element that reminds him of his youth and that even impresses the poet (it is a reminder of the strength and pain of being young, last stanza). In this sense, the moon appears as a beautiful element. However, I could appreciate a sad tone when he comes back to the reality and realises that the moon is just what it is, something “high and preposterous and separate” (fourth stanza), that never will give him back his lost youth. The moon is a very symbolic element here.

On the other hand, the verse: “there’s something laughable about this” is highlighting that he feels the moon as something special, but at the same time he recognises the reality of the ageing and the life. So that, he knows that he cannot be linked to this ridiculous feeling.

Regarding the form of the poem, it is divided into six stanzas, each one of them contains three lines. The rhyme is abc bba cdc edc efe ffe.

The language in this poem is very accessible, even colloquial if we consider the first verse in which he uses the word “piss”. He uses a different linguistic register in the beginning of the poem, which is very colloquial and it changes little by little to a more formal language. He uses some remarkable literary devices such as some metaphors to refer to the moon (high and preposterous and separated Lozenge of love!O wolves of memory!, fourth stanza). He uses as well some hyperboles such as “Medallion of Art! And “immensements!”, fourth stanza). The use of the exclamation marks provides intensity to the poem and allows the poet to emphasize the feeling that he wants to transmit with some verses (“immensements!”, fourth stanza). Finally, some brackets and colon have also been used by the author.

On the other hand, I would like to reintroduce the argument of the relation between “Sad Steps” and the two poems mentioned before, “High Windows” and “This Be The Verse”. I could find a common element that is present in the three poems, that is, the treatment of youth, how the poet comes close to young people, talking about what they do and by showing clearly his sadness because of the loss of his own youth.

In the case of “High Windows”, the poem is about “the end of religion and the agnostic fear of death, but it is also about the relation of the poet and his language to the social and to the private and about the relation of one generation and its pleasures to the next and theirs”[1]. So, the way the poem starts talking in a very explicit way about free sex between young people, shows in a way the sadness to have lost his (“when I see a couple of kids and guess he’s fucking her and she’s taking pills or wearing a diaphragm, I know this is paradise “, first stanza). Furthermore, the poet reveals that everyone old has dreamed of having been free to do whatever he would have wanted in relation to sex during all his life (“everyone old has dreamed of all their lives bond and gestures pushed to one side” second stanza”).

On the other hand, in “This Be The Verse”, I could notice that the poet is identifying with young people again in the sense that he recognises the pressure that parents exert on their children, the same that he had to suffer and the same that the future generation will have to suffer. So, he advises young people to escape from this situation and not to have kids (“they fuck you up, your mum and dad…get out as early as you can, and don’t have any kids yourself”, first stanza and last stanza”). The poet knows that a conflict between different generations exists and this situation of lack of understanding is perpetuated by man.

Yet, as a common element of this three poems we have the treatment of topics that concern young people.

Another of the aspects that is also present in these three poems is the use of colloquial words and really controversial attitudes (as the poem “High Windows” with the use of “he’s fucking her” can denote a sexist attitude). It is because of that, that Larkin has been always criticised (“Andrew Motin, Larkin’s literary executors, revealed the Nazi sympathies and misogyny of Larkin’s father and the poet’s casual racism and other politically incorrect attitudes[2].

So, sometimes Larkin’s language “invokes all-male or working class worlds;… sometimes, as in his This Be The Verse shows the poet negotiating with the feelings, illusions, and speech he attributes to the young”[3]. What becomes clear is that the poet creates an ambiguous meaning of his poems that the reader will have to solve with his particular interpretation of the poem.

As a conclusion, I would like to finish by saying that I have chosen this poem because I consider really attractive the way how the poet is writing to young people, in a very direct way and how he deals with social topics such as religion or sex.

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