“ Next, Please” By: Philip Larkin

1. “ Next, Please”By: Philip Larkin -Katherine Peralta Pd: 4th

2. Philip Larkin Philip Larkin was born on August 9, 1922, and died on December 2, 1985, do to cancer. He attended Oxford University, after which he became a librarian ( 1943), which is where he met his girlfriend, who was only 16 at the time, later on he proposed, and she said yes, but then they broke up about 2 years after the proposal. After the brake-up, he had a lot of affairs with women, and had girlfriends, but never actually married. Most of his stories/ poetry is based on his life He hated fame and had no patience in life, which relates to the poem greatly.

3. “ Next, Please” Always too eager for the future, we Pick up bad habits of expectancy. Something is always approaching; ever day Till then we say, Watching from a bluff the tiny, clear Sparkling armada of promises draw near. How slow they are! And how much time they waste, Refusing to make haste! Yet still They leave us holding wretched stalks Of disappointment, for, though nothing balks Each big approach, leaning with brass work prinked, Each rope distinct, Flagged, and the figurehead wit golden tits Arching our way, it never anchors; it’s No sooner present than it turns to past. Right to last We think each one will heave to and unload All good into our lives, all we are owed For waiting so devoutly and so long. But we are wrong: Only one ship is seeking us, a black- Sailed unfamiliar, towering at her back A huge and birdless silence. In her wake No waters breed or break.

4. Analysis… Always too eager for the future, we Pick up bad habits of expectancy. Something is always approaching; ever day Till then we say, Watching from a bluff the tiny, clear Sparkling armada of promises draw near. How slow they are! And how much time they waste, Refusing to make haste! Yet still They leave us holding wretched stalks Of disappointment, for, though nothing balks Each big approach, leaning with brass work prinked, Each rope distinct, - Sometime we look forward into the future, that we forget to live in the moment - Iambic Pentameter - The rhyme is aabbccddeeff… - We hope for things, but like a ships going towards a harbor they do not dock, meaning that they never come true, but we spend all of our time waiting for them to come true • We become disappointed that our hopes/ dreams never came true, or that we wasted our time for something that was never really going to come

5. Analysis Continued… Flagged, and the figurehead wit golden tits Arching our way, it never anchors; it’s No sooner present than it turns to past. Right to last We think each one will heave to and unload All good into our lives, all we are owed For waiting so devoutly and so long. But we are wrong: Only one ship is seeking us, a black- Sailed unfamiliar, towering at her back A huge and birdless silence. In her wake No waters breed or break. • Feeling of disappointment • Hopes never come true, instead they just pass us • Towards the end of our lives we think that because we have waited so long, our hopes, /dreams, will come true then, but they never do • We had potential, but were too eager • Black= Death • Death is near, and is unavoidable • Our whole live we waste our time waiting for all these good things to happen, that we lose sight of what is right in front of us, and sooner or later its death, and then it becomes too late to turn back.

6. Bibliography • www.eliteskills.com/analysis.../Next_Please_by_Philip_Larkin_analysis.php • www.poetryconnection.net/poets/Philip_Larkin/.../comments • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Larkin