Poet's Corner: Places, Loved Ones by Phillip Larkin

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Places, Loved Ones by Philip Larkin

No, I have never found
The place where I could say
This is my proper ground,
Here I shall stay;
Nor met that special one
Who has an instant claim
On everything I own
Down to my name;

To find such seems to prove
You want no choice in where
To build, or whom to love;
You ask them to bear
You off irrevocably,
So that it's not your fault
Should the town turn dreary,
The girl a dolt.

Yet, having missed them, you're
Bound, none the less, to act
As if what you settled for
Mashed you, in fact;
And wiser to keep away
From thinking you still might trace
Uncalled-for to this day
Your person, your place.

Comments

[firecat]

Yeah, I need to come up with a different way to describe what I currently call romantic. It doesn't have much to do with flowers and chocolates and Harlequin novels. But a tentacle monster does come close.

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Ha! I think it's easy to dismiss Harlequin romance, but I find let's call it Hallmark romance to be more insidious and more problematic for me. I like the idea of reclaiming bit of Harlequin romance (sort of like the Unconventional Courtship challenge does where you take a summary of a Harlequin novel and write a fanfic for it) but there is another kind of romance that I can't think of a good real life example of right now but Hallmark films which is sort of like old school Disney princess, too, in its own way. I still feel like I'm being sold a bill of goods but it's more difficult for me to articulate why.

But yay for tentacle monsters!!

[firecat]

Yes, Hallmark romance is a better term for the "bill of goods."

I agree with reclaiming romance as a genre and am hoping I can find time to do Unconventional Courtship. I've already been having fun with the extremely entertaining plot generator they linked — http://www.seasip.info/Misc/ucrpg.html

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Yeah, like yesterday I was watching the TV show Midsomer Murders (do you know it) on imdb and there was a commercial for shaving gel that is raspberry & cream scented and there were comely legs in a shower of raspberries and I was appalled (but slightly appreciate of the comely legs) and I had that being sold a bill of goods on many levels feeling but I don't know have the right words to explain it. Like shaving is a thing and using sex and fruit to sell shaving and just a bizarre feeling in the chest and brain.

That generator is very funny! I am going to do an The Old Guard AU where Joe inherits Nicky as part of his late half-brother Jafar's estate but is Nicky a monk or a concubine! Or both! I haven't decided yet.

[firecat]

I have yet to pick up Midsomer Murders but it's been recommended many times by people I trust, so it's on my list. Once I get through all the stuff by the two Toms, LOL.

I vote for both!

I shut my attention down fast and hard whenever I see legs in raspberries, however comely, because it never ends well. It's always about shaving gel in the end!