Philip Larkin - Born Yesturday Analysis

Larkin adopts a casual, conversational tone throughout the poem, using words like ‘stuff’ and phrases like, ‘Well, you’re a lucky girl’, alongside traditional poetic devices. Two stanzas of differing length and a paucity of rhythm or rhyme add to the informal nature of the verse. The poem, therefore, seems not properly developed and somewhat playful, much like its subject. It is only when the reader devotes attention to it that the structure and meaning begin to flower.

It begins with a lovely metaphor: ‘Tightly folded bud’. This provides an image of the swaddled infant in a way that references nature and calls to mind the innate potential of buds to grow into something beautiful. The following lines develop and subvert this opening theme, with Larkin proposing to wish for the girl ‘Not the usual stuff / About being beautiful’ and loved. That’s what everyone will wish, he claims, but if it does happen, it will be due to the vagaries of luck. What Larkin wishes, instead, is something far more pragmatic.

The first stanza, with its list of glowing attributes, has ended with an allusion to fate (or ‘luck’). The second stanza quickly develops a more mundane theme. ‘May you be ordinary’, says Larkin, with ‘an average of talents’. These sentiments run contrary to what we covet and what we preach, but Larkin takes care to unpack the meaning of his words. He is not contradicting the positives of the first stanza by inserting negatives, but, rather, is asking the reader to consider their whole person, rather than focus on one or two things that might make them ‘extraordinary’. The ‘uncustomary’, or remarkable, gifts of talent or beauty can ‘pull you off your balance’ and distract from what is truly important in a fulfilled life. (When one considers the number of rock stars, movie stars and others who have died miserably, it seems that Larkin may have a point.)

So, what is the secret of a good life? Simply, that by accepting who you are, even if that means you are just one...