Home Is So Sad

Philip Larkin

Home is so sad. It stays as it was left,
Shaped in the comfort of the last to go
As if to win them back. Instead, bereft
Of anyone to please, it withers so,
Having no heart to put aside the theft.

And turn again to what it started as,
A joyous shot at how things ought to be,
Long fallen wide. You can see how it was:
Look at the pictures and the cutlery.
The music in the piano stool. That vase.

Next 10 Poems

• Philip Larkin : How Distant
• Philip Larkin : I Have Started To Say
• Philip Larkin : I Remember, I Remember
• Philip Larkin : If Hands Could Free You, Heart
• Philip Larkin : Ignorance
• Philip Larkin : Is It For Now Or For Always
• Philip Larkin : Like The Train's Beat
• Philip Larkin : Lines On A Young Lady's Photograph Album
• Philip Larkin : Long Sight In Age
• Philip Larkin : Love Again

Previous 10 Poems

• Philip Larkin : Homage To A Government
• Philip Larkin : High Windows
• Philip Larkin : He Hears That His Beloved Has Become Engaged
• Philip Larkin : Grief
• Philip Larkin : Going
• Philip Larkin : Friday Night At The Royal Station Hotel
• Philip Larkin : For Sidney Bechet
• Philip Larkin : First Sight
• Philip Larkin : Far Out
• Philip Larkin : Faith Healing