Only the second by Larkin here - you MUST read the other one, as it is one of my all-time favorites. To have such a command of structure - ever try writing a sonnet? no? TRY! - and still be creative is something I envy. I like the closing lines, not of ships "passing in the night", but deliberately sailing apart, at dawn "...wet with light.." What a line! How beautiful.... How sad.... And, of course, my reason for selecting it: how unlike reality.
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“Love, we must part now”
Love, we must part now: do not let it be
Calamitous and bitter. In the past
There has been too much moonlight and self-pity:
Let us have done with it: for now at last
Never has sun more boldly paced the sky,
Never were hearts more eager to be free,
To kick down worlds, lash forests; you and I
No longer hold them; we are husks, that see
The grain going forward to a different use.
There is regret. Always, there is regret.
But it is better that our lives unloose,
As two tall ships, wind-mastered, wet with light,
Break from an estuary with their courses set,
And waving part, and waving drop from sight.
Philip Larkin - English
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
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