Thursday, September 24, 2009

Philip Larkin.













Those long uneven lines
Standing as patiently
As if they were stretched outside
The Oval or Villa Park,
The crowns of hats, the sun
On moustached archaic faces 
Grinning as if it were all
An August Bank Holiday lark;

       And the shut shops, the bleached
       Established  names on the sunblinds,
       The farthings and sovereigns,
 And dark-clothed children at play
 Called after kings and queens,
 The tin advertisements 
 For cocoa and twist, and the pubs
 Wide open all day;

And the country side not caring:
The place names all hazed over
With flowering grasses, and fields
Shadowing Domesday lines
Under wheat's restless silence;
The differently-dressed servants
With tiny rooms in huge houses,
The dust behind limousines;

Never such innocence,
Never before or since,
As changed itself to past
Without a word - the men
Leaving gardens tidy,
The thousands of marriages
Lasting a little while longer:
Never such innocence again.

What total dudes! Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald.

Vivienne Westwood = truly wonderful!