I Work All Day And Get Half-Drunk At Night Summary

1052 Words5 Pages

“Day we play all day. Night fight we fight all night.” – Dr. Seuss

Philip Larkin is a famous poet who lived between 1922 and 1985 in England. He was the only child of a middle class family thus he was knowing the realities of life. This situation helped him to write his poetry from a realistic view. He published his first poem in 1944 named as “The North Ship”. Two years later he published his first novel “Jill” in 1946. “High Windows”, “Aubade”, “The Less Deceived” and his other works consolidated his position in English literature. In October 1954 in an article “The Spectator” announced him as a member of The Movement group but on the contrary of this group he used senses as context, colloquial language and traditional form in his poetry. In his poem Aubade he writes on the basis of theme of death. Drunkenness, day, work and light together create contrast with death, darkness and night in the poem. This essay …show more content…

Like death and life, day and night fight in the poem. Poet takes its place already by seeking the day. Poem starts with “I work all day and get half-drunk at night”. Whole day work and drunkenness help the poet to forget at least suppress the thoughts about death. When he wakes up at four he “stares” for daylight but accepts that until day time death will be “always there”. When night comes and death appears it makes “all thought impossible” he “blanks at the glare” and reminds himself the things that he hadn’t done in life yet by saying that “the good not done, the love not given” but existence of the night reminds him “total emptiness”, “extinction” which are associated with death. The night creates a vague atmosphere which is why it helps death to preserve its “unfocused blur” shape until daylight. When “light strengthens” every figure takes its shape, blur disappears until night comes. Yet poet admits that death “stands plain as a wardrobe”, its existence is still

Open Document