{"id":7810,"date":"2021-04-21T13:10:40","date_gmt":"2021-04-21T13:10:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=7810"},"modified":"2021-07-08T11:30:46","modified_gmt":"2021-07-08T11:30:46","slug":"celebrating-earth-day-with-philip-larkin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2021\/04\/21\/celebrating-earth-day-with-philip-larkin\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Earth Day with Philip Larkin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday April 22nd is Earth Day 2021. <\/em>\u00a050 years ago,\u00a0Philip Larkin was commissioned to write a prologue\u00a0to a UK government report,\u00a0How Do You Want To Live<\/em>? \u00a0(HMSO, 1972). \u00a0This was one of the UK's papers submitted to the landmark 1972 UN Stockholm Conference on the Environment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Larkin was always going to be a risky choice for such a venture, and it's a matter of record that\u00a0the great 'n' good in government did not wholly like what he wrote \u2013 too near the truth, they likely thought, to be published in full. \u00a0Indeed, the commissioning committee\u00a0was so discomforted that they cut a verse out of the poem, something which Larkin went along with at the time<\/a>. \u00a0You can see a picture of the page of the report with the prologue here on flickr<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The original text of his \u2013 great and gloomy \u2013 poem is not yet quite wholly prescient. \u00a0Larkin published a slightly revised version of this with the missing bits added back in under the title Going, Going<\/em>\u00a0in his\u00a0collection\u00a0High Windows. \u00a0<\/em>You can listen to him reading it\u00a0here<\/a>. \u00a0No one does it better.<\/p>\n

This was the text that HMSO published:<\/p>\n

Prologue<\/b><\/p>\n

I thought it would last my time\u2014 \u00a0\/ \u00a0The sense that, beyond the town, \u00a0\/ \u00a0There would always be fields and farms \u00a0\/ \u00a0Where sports from the village could climb \u00a0\/ \u00a0Such trees as were not cut down ; \u00a0\/ \u00a0I knew there\u2019d be false alarms<\/p>\n

In the papers about old streets \u00a0\/ \u00a0And split level shopping, but some \u00a0\/ \u00a0Have always been left so far ; \u00a0\/ \u00a0And when the old part retreats \u00a0\/ \u00a0As the bleak high-risers come \u00a0\/ \u00a0We can always escape in the car.<\/p>\n

Things are tougher than we are, just \u00a0\/ \u00a0As earth will always respond \u00a0\/ \u00a0However we mess it about; \u00a0\/ \u00a0Chuck filth in the sea, if you must : \u00a0\/ \u00a0The tides will be clean beyond. \u00a0\/ \u00a0\u2014But what do I feel now ? \u00a0Doubt ?<\/p>\n

Or age, simply ? \u00a0The crowd \u00a0\/ \u00a0Is young in the M1 cafe ; \u00a0\/ \u00a0Their kids are screaming for more\u2014 \u00a0\/ \u00a0More houses, more parking allowed, \u00a0\/ \u00a0More caravan sites, more pay. \u00a0\/ \u00a0The pylons are walking the shore,<\/p>\n

\u00a0[\u2013 omitted verse \u2013]<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

When you try to get near the sea \u00a0\/ \u00a0In summer ... \u00a0\/ \u00a0It seems, just now, \u00a0\/ \u00a0To be happening so very fast ; \u00a0\/ \u00a0Despite all the land left free, \u00a0\/ \u00a0For the first time I feel somehow \u00a0\/ \u00a0That it isn\u2019t going to last,<\/p>\n

That before I snuff it, the whole \u00a0\/ \u00a0Boiling will be bricked in \u00a0\/ \u00a0Except for the tourist parts\u2014 \u00a0\/ \u00a0First slum of Europe, a role \u00a0\/ \u00a0It won\u2019t be so hard to win, \u00a0\/ \u00a0With a cast of crooks and tarts.<\/p>\n

And that will be England gone, \u00a0\/ \u00a0The shadows, the meadows, the lanes, \u00a0\/ \u00a0The guildhalls, the carved choirs. \u00a0\/ \u00a0There\u2019ll be books ; it will linger on \u00a0\/ \u00a0In galleries ; but all that remains \u00a0\/ \u00a0For us will be concrete and tyres.<\/p>\n

Most things are never meant. \u00a0\/ \u00a0This won\u2019t be, most likely : but greeds \u00a0\/ \u00a0And garbage are too thick-strewn \u00a0\/ \u00a0To be swept up now, or invent \u00a0\/ \u00a0Excuses that make them all needs. \u00a0\/ \u00a0I just think it will happen, soon.<\/p>\n

END<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Clever stuff, where every comma is made to count. \u00a0The excised lines were:<\/p>\n

[ On the Business Page, a score \/ Of spectacled grins approve \u00a0\/ \u00a0Some takeover bid that entails \u00a0\/ \u00a0Five per cent profit (and ten \u00a0\/ \u00a0Per cent more in the estuaries): move \u00a0\/ \u00a0Your works to the unspoilt dales \u00a0\/ \u00a0(Grey area grants)! ]<\/p>\n

These were removed, no doubt, because of their attack on the nature of developers as a breed and on their ready access to capital \u2013 and to government. \u00a0How pertinent all this feels 50-years on.<\/p>\n

On the upside, however, we're not quite there yet, and rumours of England's going to the dogs have been around since the 15th Century CE.<\/p>\n

.................................................<\/p>\n

A History of Environmental Education: <\/em>21 \/ o4 \/ o7<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is the latest in a series of articles about early environmental education in the UK. \u00a0Others will appear here on a monthly basis. \u00a0You can read previous essays here:<\/p>\n

Philip Neal<\/a><\/p>\n

Ten Alternative Commandments<\/a><\/p>\n

Good grief \u2013 What a title!<\/a><\/p>\n

Tbilisi 1977<\/a><\/p>\n

Remembering Sean Carson<\/a><\/p>\n

Environmental education in England 1960 to 1979 \u2013 a pen picture<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday April 22nd is Earth Day 2021. \u00a050 years ago,\u00a0Philip Larkin was commissioned to write a prologue\u00a0to a UK government report,\u00a0How Do You Want To Live? \u00a0(HMSO, 1972). \u00a0This was one of the UK's papers submitted to the landmark 1972...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7810\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}