The eye can hardly pick them out
From the cold shade they shelter in,
Till wind distresses tail and main;
Then one crops grass, and moves about
– The other seeming to look on –
And stands anonymous again
Yet fifteen years ago, perhaps
Two dozen distances surficed
To fable them: faint afternoons
Of Cups and Stakes and Handicaps,
Whereby their names were artificed
To inlay faded, classic Junes –
Silks at the start: against the sky
Numbers and parasols: outside,
Squadrons of empty cars, and heat,
And littered grass : then the long cry
Hanging unhushed till it subside
To stop-press columns on the street.
Do memories plague their ears like flies?
They shake their heads. Dusk brims the shadows.
Summer by summer all stole away,
The starting-gates, the crowd and cries –
All but the unmolesting meadows.
Almanacked, their names live; they
Have slipped their names, and stand at ease,
Or gallop for what must be joy,
And not a fieldglass sees them home,
Or curious stop-watch prophesies:
Only the grooms, and the grooms boy,
With bridles in the evening come.
(Philip Larkin)
More Poetry from Philip Larkin:
Philip Larkin Poems based on Topics: Home, Joy & Excitement, Cars, Summer- Vers De Soci (Philip Larkin Poems)
- Tr (Philip Larkin Poems)
- Night Music (Philip Larkin Poems)
- When First We Faced (Philip Larkin Poems)
- As Bad as a Mile (Philip Larkin Poems)
- Library Ode (Philip Larkin Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Joy & Excitement Poems, Home Poems, Summer Poems, Cars PoemsBased on Keywords: gallop, fable, distances, afternoons, classic, columns, silks, squadrons, anonymous, prophesies, stakes