Poetry Blog #13

A Study of Reading Habits
By: Philip Larkin



This poem, throughout the first two stanzas is describing the adventures that one can have while reading a book. His use of descriptive words helps the reader visualize these adventures. He uses specific words in lines such as, " To dirty dogs twice my size," and "Evil was just my lark." These lines are catchy and help the reader become interested in the poem wanting to read more. 


At the end of the poem Larkin says in his last line, "Books are a load of crap." I find this very ironic because he spent this entire poem saying how great books are and how useful they can be to the imagination and to the avid reader. For this reason, the end of the poem almost felt as if it came to a halt and was very abrupt. 


The theme of this poem is that although we read about all of these fascinating and dangerous ideas in books that catch our attention and let our imagination run wild, that doesn't mean they are true. Books are not real and they get ideas in children's and adult's heads that can not come true and say things that will never be done.