"Mr. Bleaney" by Philip Larkin (poetry reading)

The bleakness of life in cheap lodgings. Like Shakespeare, Larkin was condemned to examining the moment, frozen in time, considering action but never taking it. Unlike Shakespeare, nobody handed him a plot and told him how to make things happen.

"The Four Aways" was a weekly gamble on football results, small wagers for small returns. "The jabbering set" was a TV or radio maybe.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Mr.
• Bleaney
• Philip
• Larkin
• poem
• poetry
• reading

[dbrownsberger]

Where is this reading from?

[SpokenVerse]

I'm not sure I know what you mean. It's a complete poem, not a part of something else.

It was written by Philip Larkin in 1955, published in The Listener and then included in a collection of poems called The Whitsun Weddings printed in 1964

[dbrownsberger]

I'm sorry for being unclear. Larkin recorded this poem six times. I was wondering which recording this came from?

[SpokenVerse]

Oh, I see. This is my voice, not Larkin's. I read all the poems in this channel.

[andrewshere]

Sorry for the following long comment, but I really like this one...

The observations are acute: the 'saucer-souvenir' as ashtray, 'his preference for sauce to gravy...', how Bleaney 'kept on plugging at the four aways...'

[SpokenVerse]

Larkin has no basis for his contempt. Mr. Bleaney formed a mutually respectful, even affectionate relationship with his landlady; he had aspirations and family ties whereas Larkin is socially crippled and spiritually isolated.

[hammersabc]

Thank you - beautifully read. I hadn't cried at this poem for some years.

[sherlockhaimes]

This brings back recollections of my first encounter with this poem at university twenty years ago. The voice is very sumptuous and evocative in delivery. Listening to it here, Larkin's sympathy with his protagonist's ghost is tender in its terseness.

[transonicbuoy1]

I read this in 1988. I was in a rented room then. I am in a rented room now. True story. Who needs mortgages and nuclear kids, when you can rent rooms, wash your face, and walk in fields?

[dbrownsberger]

Ah, lovely.  Thank you.

[andrewshere]

Yes, spot on