Annus Mirabilis by Philip Larkin (read by Philip Larkin)

[Jackiesstash08]

1963 must have been a great time to be a teenager

[SuperMouthwash]

I think shame is a choice one makes, rather than a destiny one is born to. What people call 'permissiveness' - and attribute to the '60s - was already about in the 1920's. It is in Aldous Huxley's 'Crome Yellow', and Edna Millay's poetry.

Shame is a way of avoiding responsibility. Larkin does an excellent job here of showing its costs, and its benefits.

[BanteJante]

I guess that the young of today are so accustomed to being a part of the breaking of the bank that the shame that started the poem seems like a strange language to them.

Maybe shame makes better poets than shamelessness, though?

[Lucas182718271827]

I find that is an interesting point. Although, it is not completely sensless to our generation, we can try to imagine what it was like at that certain time. Even though we never 'fully' experienced the 60's and the shame of open sex.