Coming by Philip Larkin

Image result for laurel bush image

A laurel hedge

Coming :


On longer evenings,

Light, chill and yellow,

Bathes the serene

Foreheads of houses.

A thrush sings,

Laurel-surrounded

In the deep bare garden,

Its fresh-peeled voice

Astonishing the brickwork.

It will be spring soon,

It will be spring soon—

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.


Philip Larkin's Society: http://philiplarkin.com/

A Youtube video adding images to the poem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19dsXv_GJaU

The sound of a thrush: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdiPtYL35Uk

An online review: https://classicalartsuniverse.com/philip-larkin-coming-summary-analysis/
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In a 1964 interview with the BBC, Larkin talked about "Coming".

"The most difficult kind of poem to write is the expression of a sharp uncomplicated experience, the vivid emotion you can't wind yourself into slowly but have to take a single shot at, hit or miss. Some fifteen years ago in February, I heard a bird singing in some garden when I was walking home from work: after tea I tried to describe it, and after supper revised what I had written. That was the poem, and I must say I have always found it successful. It is called 'Coming' -- what is coming, I suppose, is Spring." (http://tomclarkblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/philip-larkin-coming.html)

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Larkin is not in any sense a nature poet yet many of his poems such as ‘The Trees’ and ‘First Sight’ celebrate the change of the seasons and, in particular, his excitement at the approach of Spring. ‘Coming’ (1950) is one of these. The contrast here is between the solid brick houses hedged in by laurel bushes and the delicacy of the birdsong and changed light that herald the Spring. I like the way past, present and future are contained in this lyric: the laurel is the modern emblem of the suburban garden yet in Greek mythology it communicated the spirit of prophesy and poetry.
The extended simile that closes the poem gives us an image of security and hope that we can all relate to, taking us back to childhood when the moods of our parents were our seasons and all our mysteries and uncertainties could be resolved by their changes.

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