Born Yesterday - (To Sally Amis)
Philip Larkin * Track #30 On Collected Poems
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Album Collected Poems
- #1“All catches alight”
Philip Larkin
- #2“This was your place of birth, this daytime palace”
Philip Larkin
- #3“The moon is full tonight”
Philip Larkin
- #4Dawn
Philip Larkin
- #5Conscript
Philip Larkin
- #6“Kick up the fire, and let the flames break loose”
Philip Larkin
- #7“The horns of the morning”
Philip Larkin
- #8Winter
Philip Larkin
- #9“Climbing the hill within the deafening wind”
Philip Larkin
- #10“Within the dream you said”
Philip Larkin
- #11“I put my mouth”
Philip Larkin
- #12Wedding Wind
Philip Larkin
- #13Places, Loved Ones
Philip Larkin
- #14Coming
Philip Larkin
- #15Dry-Point
Philip Larkin
- #16Born Yesterday - (To Sally Amis)
Philip Larkin
- #17Age
Philip Larkin
- #18Spring
Philip Larkin
- #19Deceptions
Philip Larkin
- #20Absences
Philip Larkin
- #21If, My Darling
Philip Larkin
- #22Arrivals, Departures
Philip Larkin
- #23Naturally the Foundation will Bear Your Expenses
Philip Larkin
- #24Broadcast
Philip Larkin
- #25Home is so Sad
Philip Larkin
- #26Toads Revisited
Philip Larkin
- #27Self’s The Man
Philip Larkin
- #28As Bad as a Mile
Philip Larkin
- #29Reference Back
Philip Larkin
- #30Afternoons
Philip Larkin
Born Yesterday - (To Sally Amis) by Philip Larkin
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Philip LarkinAbout
Philip Larkin is an important 20th century poet whose work deals with everyday life and relationships. His poetry is often characterised as ‘depressive’ and Larkin has been described, perhaps unfairly, as ‘a curmudgeon’. He didn’t marry (though had intimate friendships with several women), had no c...
Born Yesterday - (To Sally Amis) Annotated
Tightly-folded bud,
I have wished you something
None of the others would:
Not the usual stuff
About being beautiful,
Or running off a spring
Of innocence and love —
They will all wish you that,
And should it prove possible,
Well, you’re a lucky girl.
But if it shouldn’t, then
May you be ordinary;
Have, like other women,
An average of talents:
Not ugly, not good-looking,
Nothing uncustomary
To pull you off your balance,
That, unworkable itself,
Stops all the rest from working.
In fact, may you be dull —
If that is what a skilled,
Vigilant, flexible,
Unemphasised, enthralled
Catching of happiness is called.