Analysis of Mr Bleaney

Philip Larkin 1922 (Coventry) – 1985 (Hull)



This was Mr Bleaney's room. He stayed
The whole time he was at the Bodies, till
They moved him.' Flowered curtains, thin and frayed,
Fall to within five inches of the sill,

Whose window shows a strip of building land,
Tussocky, littered. 'Mr Bleaney took
My bit of garden properly in hand.'
Bed, upright chair, sixty-watt bulb, no hook

Behind the door, no room for books or bags -
'I'll take it.' So it happens that I lie
Where Mr Bleaney lay, and stub my fags
On the same saucer-souvenir, and try

Stuffing my ears with cotton-wool, to drown
The jabbering set he egged her on to buy.
I know his habits - what time he came down,
His preference for sauce to gravy, why

He kept on plugging at the four aways -
Likewise their yearly frame: the Frinton folk
Who put him up for summer holidays,
And Christmas at his sister's house in Stoke.

But if he stood and watched the frigid wind
Tousling the clouds, lay on the fusty bed
Telling himself that this was home, and grinned,
And shivered, without shaking off the dread

That how we live measures our own nature,
And at his age having no more to show
Than one hired box should make him pretty sure
He warranted no better, I don't know.


Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GFGF HIHI XJXJ XKXK
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 11101111 0111110101 1111010101 1101110101 1101011101 1101011 1111010001 1011101111 0101111111 1111110111 110110111 101100101 1011110111 011110111 1111011111 1100111101 111101011 11101011 111111010 0101110101 1111010101 10111011 1001111101 0100110101 11111010110 0111101111 11101111101 1100110111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,151
Words 224
Sentences 8
Stanzas 7
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 28
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 130
Words per stanza (avg) 32
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Submitted by RobertHaigh on July 26, 2020

Modified on March 14, 2023

1:07 min read
81

Philip Larkin

Philip Larkin was born in 1922 and grew up in Coventry, England. He earned his BA from St John's College, Oxford, and finished with First Class Honours in English. In 1955 he became Librarian of the Brynmor Jones Library at the University of Hull, a post he held until his death in 1985. He was the best-loved poet of his generation, and the recipient of innumerable honours, including the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. more…

All Philip Larkin poems | Philip Larkin Books

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