Analysis of To write one song, I said

Philip Larkin 1922 (Coventry) – 1985 (Hull)



To write one song, I said,
As sad as the sad wind
That walks around my bed,
Having one simple fall
As a candle-flame swells, and is thinned,
As a curtain stirs by the wall
— For this I must visit the dead.
Headstone and wet cross,
Paths where the mourners tread,
A solitary bird,
These call up the shade of loss,
Shape word to word.

That stones would shine like gold
Above each sodden grave,
This, I had not foretold,
Nor the birds' clamour, nor
The image morning gave
Of more and ever more,
As some vast seven-piled wave,
Mane-flinging, manifold,
Streams at an endless shore.


Scheme AXABXBACADCD EFEGFGFEG
Poetic Form
Metre 111111 111011 110111 101101 101011011 10101101 11111001 1011 110101 01001 1110111 1111 111111 011101 111101 10111 010101 110101 1111011 11010 111101
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 558
Words 107
Sentences 3
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 12, 9
Lines Amount 21
Letters per line (avg) 21
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 223
Words per stanza (avg) 54
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Submitted by RobertHaigh on June 10, 2020

Modified on April 30, 2023

32 sec read
203

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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