The poem
My wife and I have asked a crowd of craps To come and waste their time and ours: perhaps You'd care to join us? In a pig's arse, friend. Day comes to an end. The gas fire breathes, the trees are darkly swayed. And so Dear Warlock-Williams: I'm afraid--
Funny how hard it is to be alone. I could spend half my evenings, if I wanted, Holding a glass of washing sherry, canted Over to catch the drivel of some bitch Who's read nothing but Which; Just think of all the spare time that has flown
Straight into nothingness by being filled With forks and faces, rather than repaid Under a lamp, hearing the noise of wind, And looking out to see the moon thinned To an air-sharpened blade. A life, and yet how sternly it's instilled
All solitude is selfish. No one now Believes the hermit with his gown and dish Talking to God (who's gone too); the big wish Is to have people nice to you, which means Doing it back somehow. Virtue is social. Are, then, these routines
Playing at goodness, like going to church? Something that bores us, something we don't do well (Asking that ass about his fool research) But try to feel, because, however crudely, It shows us what should be? Too subtle, that. Too decent, too. Oh hell,
Only the young can be alone freely. The time is shorter now for company, And sitting by a lamp more often brings Not peace, but other things. Beyond the light stand failure and remorse Whispering Dear Warlock-Williams: Why, of course--
The title of this poem is "Vers de societe" which is an intelligent pun, which, translated literally, means something like "Across society", despite looking like a misspelling of "Verse de societe", which means "Verse of society". Excuse my omission of the acute accents on the e's in "societe", my keyboard is incapable of producing them.
Hiya joe!Thought I'd let you know how to do the e's that you wanted.
You press down "ctrl" and "alt" the same time as e
and you get "é"! You can do this with all the foreign
letters!Hope I've helped you!
The tone of the poem is flippant and mildly ironic.
This is light poetry written with particular wit and polish intended for a limited, sophisticated audience.
You can feel the sense of upper class coming through, with the dinner parties and the quotes.
Plus, i feel Larkin is trying to express that the older we get the more we waste time doing things we don't enjoy so we can have some company.
Thanks for the help, but that's not the problem. My keyboard is actually incapable of producing them. Neither Ctrl + Alt + E works, nor Alt + 0233. But thanks anyway...
Joe
In response to Hannah's comments i'd like to ask if she has actually studied Larkin?!?! what you must understand is that Larkin writes through a persona and is not necassarily always voicing his own interpretations or opinions in these situations he so brilliantly connects with both as a poet and a human being. To say that he has serious regrets about his life is both ignorant and wasteful. What evidence do you have…
Read the whole commentIn response to Hannah's comments i'd like to ask if she has actually studied Larkin?!?! what you must understand is that Larkin writes through a persona and is not necassarily always voicing his own interpretations or opinions in these situations he so brilliantly connects with both as a poet and a human being. To say that he has serious regrets about his life is both ignorant and wasteful. What evidence do you have to make such a statement? please read through 'high windows' again with this in mind and i have no doubt that you will see that each individual poem carries it's own message. whether it be Larkin or not, the gaps you see are what you choose to see and i am confident that many would agree with me. Morag jones x
i am currently studying larkin for A level, and have been requested to analyse this poem of his, however I am finding it very difficult!
Why has he chosen to write in italics for example. As if when writing through a persona in previous poems he wrote in italics, so maybe the rest of this poem in normal text format (not italics) is showing that, that is larkin after all. Also-what is it really about?! and Is calling the crowd of craps really insulting? Or did craps have a different meaning in that time period? please any answers or additional information, would be greatly appreciated.
S
I am currently studing the High Windows collection and Ver de societe is one that really stands out. It exemplifies the contradictions of Larkin which are evident in msny of his poems. On the one hand he wishes to spend his time alone..probably reading and writing yet society presses him to conform to being socialble. The title translates as "worms of company" However i understand where Joe comes from as it also is…
Read the whole commentI am currently studing the High Windows collection and Ver de societe is one that really stands out. It exemplifies the contradictions of Larkin which are evident in msny of his poems. On the one hand he wishes to spend his time alone..probably reading and writing yet society presses him to conform to being socialble. The title translates as "worms of company" However i understand where Joe comes from as it also is a term for social or familiar poetry. Both apply in this case and the fact he entitles the poem in french is pretencious in itself aswell as aiding his portrayal of society. The contradictions of All solitude is selfish ans virtue is social reach brilliance in the poem. as does the explicit contradiction between the first and last stanza. I LOVE LARKIN! I would also look into the struture and rhyme scheme language to see how these elements aid the poems message!!
Vers de societé means a poem about society, un vers is a verse in a poem
Hey...this comment's for this year's exam which is tomorrow! Just wanted to comment on the ending of this poem...I feel it's quite creative on Larkin's part to say that he merely whispers his approval of the invitation. It reinforces his idea that he has to pretentiously aspire to social conduct and norms...but the fact that he's ashamed almost comes through when he speaks in hushed tones to accept the invitation.