Poem for the month

selected by David Underdown, who writes the footnote

Wants

by Philip Larkin

Beyond all this, the wish to be alone:
However the sky grows dark with invitation-cards
However we follow the printed directions of sex
However the family is photographed under the flagstaff –
Beyond all this, the wish to be alone.

Beneath it all, desire of oblivion runs:
Despite the artful tensions of the calendar,
The life insurance, the tabled fertility rites,
The costly aversion of the eyes from death –
Beneath it all, desire of oblivion runs.

Larkin’s poems evoke a mixed response. He has been criticised for misogyny. Certainly his poems are often dismissive about women, although in this he reflects the prevailing attitudes of his day. In many ways his beef is with the human race, including himself. He is steadfast in misanthropy. His poems can seem cruel, but he doesn’t spare himself from what he dishes out. He is above all rigorously honest. No one does ‘bleak’ quite as well as Larkin. ‘Wants’ is taken from his 1955 collection ‘The Less Deceived’ published by the Marvell Press.