"Aubade" by Philip Larkin

[dananddanfilms]

I find this poem ultimately consoling, because it accurately articulates the most terrifying thoughts that we all share. In so doing their power becomes diminished. Beautifully read, by the way.

[JP2times2007]

YOUR PHILIP LARKIN IS ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT!

[scifiwritir]

Wow, powerful! Bleak, though.

[thallassocracy]

I think this is the only time I ever heard this poem spoken by someone who convincingly picks a safe path through its grammatical minefield. (This may be in part because - for some unfathomable reason - this poem is usually performed by actors and other speaking professionals, rather than poets (or real people)).

Larkin belongs to a tiny group of writers who make being afraid of death part of the vivid thrill of being alive. And to the even tinier group who make recalcitrant grammar fun.

[Eddie123xyz]

We have all been dead before and we weren't troubled by it. All those years before we were born.

[gaspode18]

@Eddie123xyz Yes, but it was going to end at some time.Death is forever.

[Jlongtors0]

Possibly the best reading by SpokenVerse it has been my pleasure to hear, and that is saying something.

[AnotherCuppaCoffee]

I cannot understand why I have dream conversations with my dead parents and they tell me that every scene is made up for me because I am not one of them and that's why time is mixed together as they please, though it's all illusion. They are often affectionately amused with me.

It often turn out that the characters in the scenes are real although I could never have met them and do not think I ever heard of them.

[larlie]

I really adore this poem, Larkin just has a way of putting things so aptly. Religion as a "vast, moth-eaten musical brocade". Incredible.

[Eddie123xyz]

Occasionally I remind myself that everyone I know, have known, have spoken to, or seen will die. Momentarily I find that thought astonishing:-)

[NoUseForAName06]

Terrifying indeed... I wonder how Larkin felt on his dead bed... Did he feel afraid? When was this poem written? Towards the end of his life cycle?... I only know three poems by Larkin but I am becoming quite a fan.

[SpokenVerse]

Aubade was in the Times Literary Supplement 23rd December, 1977. He died in 1985, aged 63, of throat cancer. His last words were reported as, "I am going to the inevitable."

The best contrary views are those expressed in the Rubaiyat and Ecclesiastes In short their advice is: live in the present and enjoy simple pleasures - why mar this precious life with thoughts of death?

[mafting]

Fucking terrifying. Just terrifying.

[SpokenVerse]

You're living in "The Now". What you hear, taste, see, feel, think Now are all that there is.  Appreciate Now, make the most of it. Thinking about other conditions, other times will only contaminate your experience of Now. Now will never include death.

[TerminatorFive]

I find this poem sums up the human condition in all its bleak reality

[SpokenVerse]

"Cowards die many times before their deaths,

The valiant never taste of death but once."

Shakespeare, Julius Caesar (II, ii, 32-37)

[SpokenVerse]

afterthought...."I detest life-insurance agents; they always argue that I shall some day die, which is not so." .....Stephen Leacock (1869 - 1944)

[jacnova]

how would you compare this to Dylan Thomas Do not go gentle into that good night? they both are talking about how we face death and our own mortality. please let me know what you think!

[SpokenVerse]

Nursing manuals list the stages of grief people go through when facing death, both their own and those they love: Shock, Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Despair, Acceptance. This poem and Dylan Thomas's show the early stages. Larkin's brutal honesty is unique. However, when he says "we can't escape - yet can't accept", although that is true for him at the time, he is still in the early stages of grief. It appears that when death becomes inevitable it also becomes acceptable.

[jacnova]

I feel like Larkin has a Capra Diem approach to death because of the last stanza while Thomas wants us to fight the dying of the light. But they both seem to have this 'birth is the first step onto the path to death' view and i dont understand how they view death the same way but face it differently.

[snowflake2133]

Oh God I am so petrified ever since I am having doubts about my Islamic faith, please God let this adventure continue even if you put me in hell, let me plead my case.

My sister keeps telling me be it will be like before we were born, a total blankness but to know this life in all its chaotic glory (to never seen another human) and then to be extinguished, its enough to make me weep until Death reclaims me. I am sobbing now...

[SpokenVerse]

There are excellent poems about accepting the prospect of death. Search my videos for Chidiock Tichborne, Omar Khayyam and William Drummond.

[druidus]

I'm not a great poetry fan, but this one had a huge impact on me. Like a punch in the stomach.

[kernel2006]

Thankyou very much, this was excellent.