The last stanza of this poem brings to mind the advice to “Die before you die.” It has been attributed to Rumi and to C.S. Lewis, and I’ve heard Orthodox Christians echo the saying. St. Paul said, “I die daily,” and also, “I am crucified with Christ.” Whatever all these people meant, our final death we are definitely instructed to keep in mind, and as the poet says, “learn” something about it — though it’s not clear that he was numbering his days in the Christian fashion.
But it was the second stanza that caught my attention here, Larkin’s description of the disorienting effect of considering time and ageing. The images capture what I often feel.
I HAVE STARTED TO SAY
I have started to say
“A quarter of a century”
Or “thirty years back”
About my own life.
It makes me breathless
It’s like falling and recovering
In huge gesturing loops
Through an empty sky.
All that’s left to happen
Is some deaths (my own included).
Their order, and their manner,
Remain to be learnt.
-Philip Larkin
Gladsome Lights 
An appropriate poem to read on my birthday 🙂
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Happy Birthday, Anne! I hope it doesn’t make you too loopy!
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To be older than the Pope is pretty hard to grasp.
I often think that you’re born; you go to school; you graduate; you get married; you have children, to then grandchildren, then great grandchildren; they grow up and go away; you get old, and you die. Well, there’s not much left in that list, but I don’t mind at all.
AMDG
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Same here. Last night, enjoying supper with 96 year old Daddy, our conversation usually turns to death. “It’s hard to believe it’s been ___years since _____” when recounting an event, usually a death.
“Death Cleaning”, so called by the Swedes, and embraced by me. Boxes full of belongings wait to be taken to friends who will enjoy them next as I wait on the front pew.
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My impression of Philip Larkin is that he wasn’t a hopeful Christian, or a Christian at all. (not that I ever read any books on him!)
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That’s the general impression – but the heart is deep. And he wrote a couple of poems that I’ve posted in the past that give me hope for him, like this one:
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Wow, Gretchen – yes, poor fellow. God knows.
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Recently my husband and I attended his 50th high school reunion. It staggered us a bit to realize that in the 1970’s, when we were in school waiting to graduate, 1920 was fifty years in the past. 1920 at that time seemed eons away. Now, to realize that is how my grandchildren might feel about 1975 when I graduated astounds me. How did the time go so fast? Yes, I think about going to heaven one day, or the rapture, and lately so hopeful after reading Dr. David Jeremiah’s The Golden Age. It’s downright exciting to me to think of what awaits those who follow HIM.
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