The poem
She kept her songs, they kept so little space, The covers pleased her: One bleached from lying in a sunny place, One marked in circles by a vase of water, One mended, when a tidy fit had seized her, And coloured, by her daughter - So they had waited, till, in widowhood She found them, looking for something else, and stood
Relearning how each frank submissive chord Had ushered in Word after sprawling hyphenated word, And the unfailing sense of being young Spread out like a spring-woken tree, wherein That hidden freshness sung, That certainty of time laid up in store As when she played them first. But, even more,
The glare of that much-mentionned brilliance, love, Broke out, to show Its bright incipience sailing above, Still promising to solve, and satisfy, And set unchangeably in order. So To pile them back, to cry, Was hard, without lamely admitting how It had not done so then, and could not now.
I believe the theme of this poem is love. The love songs themselves are unassuming - 'they kept so little space' and they are 'submissive'. Like her perhaps, they show their age - 'bleached', 'marked in circles', 'mended'. These are old companions, but they have not kept their promise. What is this promise? Love was'Still promising to solve, and satisfy'. It has not yet done so and the lady who is the subject of the…
Read the whole commentI believe the theme of this poem is love. The love songs themselves are unassuming - 'they kept so little space' and they are 'submissive'. Like her perhaps, they show their age - 'bleached', 'marked in circles', 'mended'. These are old companions, but they have not kept their promise. What is this promise? Love was'Still promising to solve, and satisfy'. It has not yet done so and the lady who is the subject of the poem still finds it hard to admit that the promise was empty when she first heard it, and is now. 'It had not done so then, and could not now'. This leaves it 'hard' 'to cry', and so we are left with regret for the lady who cannot be honest with herself - and perhaps for these sweet songs too.
Note how the structure is such that there are 3 sentences that gradually get shroter and shorter as if spiralling from a happy past to realisation of the harsh reality.
On the one hand, "word after hyphenated word" and "each frank submissive chord" make me thing that the poem is about music which the persona sang/played/read herself.
On the other hand "mended" seems to be suggesting they're records.
"Playing" and "coloured in" are ambiguous.. who knows!
without lamely admitting how
It had not done so then, and could not now.
Larkin’s subtle rhyme scheme adds to the illusion of order of living among the chaos of emotion. It blends with the rythmn of the writing. The whole becomes a flow- of words and emotions- almost like a song in itself.
I enjoyed reading this very much. I found, which I often do not find with Larkin, that this was very easy to become absorbed in this poem.
I do not knnow what happened but I only posted half of what I wanted to say about this poem. Very evocative poem. I conjured an image of an elderly, or certainly older woman, who, out of loneliness sits among the mementoes of her youth. Most particularly amongst these is a collection of sheet music, the kind popular in the thirties and forties. This sheet music was obviously something which was important to her when…
Read the whole commentI do not knnow what happened but I only posted half of what I wanted to say about this poem.
Very evocative poem.
I conjured an image of an elderly, or certainly older woman, who, out of loneliness sits among the mementoes of her youth. Most particularly amongst these is a collection of sheet music, the kind popular in the thirties and forties.
This sheet music was obviously something which was important to her when she wore a younger woman's clothes. It was well used and well loved, or else why should she keep it for so many years with such care?
It seems to me that the lyrics of the songs in question had at one time ignited dreams in this woman which, sadly, never materialised. She may well have been a romantic young woman who was sure that when love came to her she would find bliss and everlasting joy
I think that the reference to widowhood indicates some kind of disatisfaction with her marriage in respect of realising these dreams.-’ without lamely admitting how
It had not done so then, and could not now’.
Larkin’s subtle rhyme scheme adds to the illusion of order of living among the chaos of emotion. It blends with the rythmn of the writing. The whole becomes a flow- of words and emotions- almost like a song in itself.