The School In August

Philip Larkin

The cloakroom pegs are empty now,
And locked the classroom door,
The hollow desks are lined with dust,
And slow across the floor
A sunbeam creeps between the chairs
Till the sun shines no more.

Who did their hair before this glass?
Who scratched 'Elaine loves Jill'
One drowsy summer sewing-class
With scissors on the sill?
Who practised this piano
Whose notes are now so still?

Ah, notices are taken down,
And scorebooks stowed away,
And seniors grow tomorrow
From the juniors today,
And even swimming groups can fade,
Games mistresses turn grey.

Next 10 Poems

• Philip Larkin : The Spirit Wooed
• Philip Larkin : The Trees
• Philip Larkin : The Whitsun Weddings
• Philip Larkin : This Be The Verse
• Philip Larkin : This Is The First Thing
• Philip Larkin : To Failure
• Philip Larkin : To My Wife
• Philip Larkin : To Put One Brick Upon Another
• Philip Larkin : Toads
• Philip Larkin : Toads Revisited

Previous 10 Poems

• Philip Larkin : The Old Fools
• Philip Larkin : The North Ship
• Philip Larkin : The Mower
• Philip Larkin : The Little Lives Of Earth And Form
• Philip Larkin : The Importance Of Elsewhere
• Philip Larkin : The Explosion
• Philip Larkin : The Building
• Philip Larkin : Talking In Bed
• Philip Larkin : Take One Home For The Kiddies
• Philip Larkin : Sunny Prestatyn