Aubade

[falstaffswims]

I love Philip Larkin for making me sh-t my pants laughing at my parents, and older fools in old-style hats and coats... and on the next page, scaring the holy living sh-t out of me, by reminding me acutely of what I already know, and spend my waking life like Canute trying like a fool to stave it off... I am going to f-cking die.

In sum, Pip the Lark is good at getting my bowels moving. Oh, lordy, how I love him!

[ybot1983]

@falstaffswims hes the greatest poet of the second half of the 20th century, probably better than Eliot the greatest of the first half 

[spitfirepilot]

over acted, much as I like this actor - and this poem. and the music! F*** !

[Ivanhoe2]

I enjoyed this reading.Many thanks for posting it.

[DavidQuantick]

It is a little aggressive, I grant you. But a change from Alan Bennett.

[campbellonia]

Why (as Larkin would surely say) doesn't he just read the fucker out? The actor doesn't need to supply the beats.

Larkin wrote it!

[timco2007]

Why does he have a little attack at the start of the third stanza? And why does he put the stresses in the most unnatural places?

[ybot1983]

@timco2007 cos he hasnt a clue

[errorgorilla]

David Quantick the journalist?

Threads. Brr. Terrified me in 1984 and terrified me when I watched it again last year.

It's interesting the hear the way that Tom Courtenay reads Aubade; I've a copy of Larkin himself reading it, as well as Alan Bennett, but neither inject it with the venom Courtenay does. I shall have to purchase Pretending To Be Me.