This week’s poem, recommended by Year 12 pupils Isla and Issy, is Coming by Philip Larkin, which was published in Larkin’s 1955 book, The Less Deceived.
The poem is a beautiful, blissful one, in which the speaker describes the coming of spring – very apt for this time of year. Although we are incapable of fully understanding nature, we know that the coming of spring is joyful; like a child feeding off the joy of their parents, whilst understanding very little, we feed off the joy of the world.
We hope you enjoy it!
Coming
by Philip Larkin
On longer evenings,
Light, chill and yellow,
Bathes the serene
Foreheads of houses.
A thrush sings,
Laurel-surrounded
In the deep bare garden,
Its fresh-peeled voice
Astonishing the brickwork.
It will be spring soon,
It will be spring soon –
And I, whose childhood
Is a forgotten boredom,
Feel like a child
Who comes on a scene
Of adult reconciling,
And can understand nothing
But the unusual laughter,
And starts to be happy.
Photo Credit:
Bridgeman Art Library / Universal Images Group
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