Poetry Friday: Philip Larkin's "Aubade" - "I work all day, and get half drunk at night"

Thanks for visiting! We're happy to be hosting Poetry Friday today at The Well-Read Child! Leave your link in the comments, and we'll post the roundup throughout the day!

In the Middle Ages minstrels sometimes sang Aubades, or songs about lovers parting at dawn. This theme was revived by metaphysical poets like John Donne. In "The Sun Rising," he rails against the sun for its interruption of lovers.

In "Aubade," Philip Larkin replaces one lover with death, and speaks of night not as romantic cover but as an encounter with "what is really always there," mortality. The parting lover becomes the parting of this consciousness of mortality in exchange for the glare of distractions from it -- socializing, work, religion, drink. "I work all day, and get half drunk at night."

Aubade by Philip Larkin
I work all day, and get half-drunk at night.
Waking at four to soundless dark, I stare.
In time the curtain-edges will grow light.
Till then I see what's really always there:
Unresting death, a whole day nearer now,
Making all thought impossible but how
And where and when I shall myself die.
Arid interrogation: yet the dread
Of dying, and being dead,
Flashes afresh to hold and horrify.

Read the rest here.

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Now, for the roundup!

Stacey and Ruth over at Two Writing Teachers have been hosting a One Week Poetry Challenge all week. If you haven't checked out all of the wonderful poems, now's your chance. Be sure to also check out Stacey's original poem about joy.

Tiel Aisha Ansari at Knocking From Inside brings us an original piece, "Edgar on Time", with an epigraph from Shakespeare.

Tricia at The Miss Rumphis Effect shares Paul Laurence Dunbar's "The Debt".

Elaine gives us two treats this week. First, at Wild Rose Reader, find an interview with Joyce Sidman. Next, at Blue Rose Girls, read Archibald MacLeish's "Ars Poetica."

John at The Book Mine Set shares a review of Selected Poems of Federico Garcia Lorca, translated by Martin Sorrell as well as a "Do-it-yourself" Lorca invitation. See what John came up with, and give it a try yourself.

Jenny at Jenny's Wonderland of Books joins us for her first Poetry Friday and brings us two poems by Vachel Lindsay. Welcome Jenny!

Devin at Speak of the Splendor shares May Swenson's "Analysis of Baseball."

Gregory K. at GottaBook is in with an original poem, "There's a Closet in My Nightmare."

Marie at Literacy Details shares a poem by Kristine O'Connell George.

Jama at Jama Rattigan's Alphabet Soup is in with poems about being late by Jeffrey McDaniel and Ted Hughes.

Cloudscome at A Wrung Sponge brings us an original, "First The Flower, Then the Leaf", her response to Tricia's Monday Poetry Stretch.

Sarah at In Need of Chocolate shares W.B. Yeats' "The Cat and the Moon."

Andrea and Mark at Just One More Book! share their podcast review of the rhyming picture book, Best Friend on Wheels.

writer2B is in with W.S. Merwin's "The Unwritten."

Ruth at There is No Such Thing as a God-forsaken Town, bids farewell to Aimé Césaire, who died yesterday.

Carol from Carol's Corner joins us for the first time bringing "Confessions of a Reader." Welcome Carol!

Lisa at A Little of This, A Little of That brings "The Pow Wow at the End of the World," by Sherman Alexie.

Sarah at Just Another Day of Catholic Pondering celebrates spring with Lawrence Raab's "Cold Spring."

Mme T at Destined to Become a Classic offers Don Paterson's "Poetry."

Sara at Read Write Believe shares the poem she carried in her pocket yesterday: Elizabeth Bishop's "The Filling Station."

Mary Lee at A Year of Reading shares some acrostics written by her students.

Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast shares an interview with The Poetry Seven, the seven bloggers who created last week's crown sonnet, "Cutting a Swath."

Anastasia at Picture Book of the Day is in with the picture book, Jazz Baby.

Jenny at Little Acorns Treehouse brings us "Jerimoth Hill" by Tom Chandler, a poem that describes the landscape of Rhode Island.

Becky Levine offers up an original poem this week.

Karen Edmisten shares Frances Thompson's "The Hound of Heaven."

In celebration of GLBTQ poetry, Lee Wind from I'm Here. I'm Queer. What the Hell do I Read? shares Dennis Cooper's "James Kelly."

At Bildungsroman, Little Willow offers Hart Crane's "Chaplinesque. "

At World of Words, Marcie shares some Mother Goose rhymes.

Becky at Becky's Book Reviews shares "Rated PG-13", a fairy-tale related poem from Vivian Vande Velde's Tales From the Brothers Grimm and the Sisters Weird.

Becky at Farm School offers an Adrian Henri fractured fairy tale poem, and a bit of Charles Causley's thoughts on poetry for children.

Miss Erin brings us "Winter's on the Wing," from Secret Garden, the Musical.


MsMac at Check It Out shares a winning poem from one of her students and some great haiku from third graders.

Susan T. at Chicken Spaghetti gives us Josephine Jacobson's "Monosyllable."

Lisa Chellman at Under the Covers muses about Oscar Wilde, the value of beautiful wallpaper, and why she writes. She also gives us snippets of some of Wilde's and John Keats' poetry.

Marjorie at Paper Tigers talks about about children's poets Michael Rosen and Jorge Luján's share of a talk at the Bologna Book Fair. Be sure to check out the animation at the end!

Suzanne at Adventures in Daily Living brings "The Windhover" by Gerard Manley Hopkins.

a. fortis at Finding Wonderland brings us two gems from T.S. Eliot.

Liz at Liz in Ink shares some "poetry-centric ramblings" and a E.E. Cummings' "My Love is Building a Building."

Gina at AmoXcalli implores us to Save the Tacos. Also check out Gina's poetry news and student animation over at Cuentecitos.

Anamaria from Books Together brings us "Los Zapaticos de Rosa" from Cuban poet, Jose Marti.

MsMac offers up an original poem regarding her absence at a book challenge hearing for MT Anderson's Feed.

Fuse #8 is in with a post about the poetry collection, Inside Out: Children's Poets Discuss Their Work.

Liz B. at A Chair, A Fireplace, & A Tea Cozy gives us "The Red Wheelbarrow" by William Carlos Williams.

Felicity at Look Books gives us Mary Oliver's "Summer Day."

The Reading Zone offers up an original poem as part of Two Writing Teachers' One Week Poetry Challenge.

Kelly at Big A little a gives a review of Jan Greenberg's Side by Side: New Poems Inspired by Art from Around the World.

Kelly Fineman at Writing and Ruminating shares "The Lion and Albert" by Marriott Edgar.

Finally, Christine at The Simple and the Ordinary offers up "Flowers" by Robert Louis Stevenson.


Thank you everyone for your wonderful posts! It's been a pleasure hosting.