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Quotes from The Less Deceived — Philip Larkin

1922–1985 England

← All quotes by Philip Larkin

9 quotes

But superstition, like belief, must die,
And what remains when disbelief has gone?

The Less Deceived (1955)

A serious house on serious earth it is,
In whose blent air all our compulsions meet,
Are recognised, and robed as destinies.

The Less Deceived (1955)

Some brass and stuff
Up at the holy end.

The Less Deceived (1955)

Hatless, I take off
My cycle-clips in awkward reverence.

The Less Deceived (1955)

Some ruin-bibber, randy for antique.

The Less Deceived (1955)

Their nippers have got bare feet,
Their unspeakable wives
Are skinny as whippets—and yet
No one actually starves.

The Less Deceived (1955)

Only one ship is seeking us, a black-
Sailed unfamiliar, towing at her back
A huge and birdless silence. In her wake
No waters breed or break.

The Less Deceived (1955)

And I, whose childhood
Is a forgotten boredom,
Feel like a child
Who comes on a scene
Of adult reconciling,
And can understand nothing
But the unusual laughter,
And starts to be happy.

The Less Deceived (1955)

But, o, photography! as no art is,
Faithful and disappointing! That records
Dull days as dull, and hold-it smiles as frauds,
And will not censor blemishes,
Like washing-lines, and Hall's-Distemper boards.

The Less Deceived (1955)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Philip Larkin (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.