A Study of Reading Habits

Philip Larkin

When getting my nose in a book
Cured most things short of school,
It was worth ruining my eyes
To know I could still keep cool,
And deal out the old right hook
To dirty dogs twice my size.

Later, with inch-thick specs,
Evil was just my lark:
Me and my coat and fangs
Had ripping times in the dark.
The women I clubbed with sex!
I broke them up like meringues.

Don't read much now: the dude
Who lets the girl down before
The hero arrives, the chap
Who's yellow and keeps the store
Seem far too familiar. Get stewed:
Books are a load of crap.

 

 

  I interpreted the first stanza as using books as an escape from life's dilemmas.  I also took from this stanza that Larkin used books to learn how to deal with problems.  The second stanza I visualized Larkin as a teenager, rather than a kid like I did in the previous stanza.  In line seven, when he says, with inch-thick specs, this goes back to line three.  Larkin read books so much throughout his childhood he needed glasses by the time he was a teenager.  The third stanza represents Larkin as an adult.  I thought it was funny because Larkin is now the opposite. He doesn't read anymore or go to books for solutions.  He got too bored of the same general themes.  In line seventeen, when he says, get stewed, I did some researching and found out it means to use drugs or alcohol as his escape, instead of books.  The last line is my favorite because you don't expect it, especially how much he loves books in the beginning.  I liked this poem because it is very humorous and different.  It's also not about death, which is a first. :)