Sorry, another Larkin


Because the majority of me
rejects the majority of you
debating ends forthwith and we
divide and—sure of what to do—
we disinfect whole blocks of days
for our majorities to rent
with unshared friends and unwalked ways.
But silence too is eloquent,
a silence of minorities
that—unopposed at last—return
each night with cancelled promises
they want renewed: they never learn.

Philip Larkin
I know this is the third Larkin in the collection but i'm a normal person really. Honest. My excuse for this one is that my friend Charlotte Paul gave me a copy of the Collected Larkin and when i picked it up it fell open at this page: the poem was so perfectly constructed that i had it by heart after reading it just once. And i have just written it out from memory too...
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