I could go on and on about the poems that OCR might choose to illustrate and explore the human (rest of) nature relationship, but I'm just adding one before I stop.<\/p>\n
What to choose? \u00a0Something by a dead white bloke I think (a category I'll be joining one of these days). \u00a0Clare? \u00a0Hardy? \u00a0Housman? \u00a0Wordsworth? \u00a0Thomas? \u00a0... . \u00a0No. \u00a0I think it has to be Larkin given that he's one of the DWBs crassly abandoned by OCR.<\/p>\n
50 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>\u00a0(whose 50 year anniversary it is this week).<\/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>. \u00a0In what follows the omitted section is shown [[ in double brackets ]].<\/p>\n Larkin 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 Going, going<\/strong><\/p>\n I thought it would last my time \u2013<\/p>\n The sense that, beyond the town,<\/p>\n There would always be fields and farms,<\/p>\n Where the village louts could climb<\/p>\n Such trees as were not cut down;<\/p>\n I knew there\u2019d be false alarms<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In the papers about old streets<\/p>\n And split level shopping, but some<\/p>\n Have always been left so far;<\/p>\n And when the old part retreats<\/p>\n As the bleak high-risers come<\/p>\n We can always escape in the car.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Things are tougher than we are, just<\/p>\n As earth will always respond<\/p>\n However we mess it about;<\/p>\n Chuck filth in the sea, if you must:<\/p>\n The tides will be clean beyond.<\/p>\n \u2013 But what do I feel now? Doubt?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Or age, simply? The crowd<\/p>\n Is young in the M1 cafe;<\/p>\n Their kids are screaming for more \u2013<\/p>\n More houses, more parking allowed,<\/p>\n More caravan sites, more pay.<\/p>\n [[<\/strong> On the Business Page, a score<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Of spectacled grins approve<\/p>\n Some takeover bid that entails<\/p>\n Five per cent profit (and ten<\/p>\n Per cent more in the estuaries): move<\/p>\n Your works to the unspoilt dales<\/p>\n (Grey area grants)! ]]<\/strong> And when<\/p>\n <\/p>\n You try to get near the sea<\/p>\n In summer ...<\/p>\n It seems, just now,<\/p>\n To be happening so very fast;<\/p>\n Despite all the land left free<\/p>\n For the first time I feel somehow<\/p>\n That it isn\u2019t going to last,<\/p>\n <\/p>\n That before I snuff it, the whole<\/p>\n Boiling will be bricked in<\/p>\n Except for the tourist parts \u2013<\/p>\n First slum of Europe: a role<\/p>\n It won\u2019t be hard to win,<\/p>\n With a cast of crooks and tarts.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And that will be England gone,<\/p>\n The shadows, the meadows, the lanes,<\/p>\n The guildhalls, the carved choirs.<\/p>\n There\u2019ll be books; it will linger on<\/p>\n In galleries; but all that remains<\/p>\n For us will be concrete and tyres.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Most things are never meant.<\/p>\n This won\u2019t be, most likely; but greeds<\/p>\n And garbage are too thick-strewn<\/p>\n To be swept up now, or invent<\/p>\n Excuses that make them all needs.<\/p>\n I just think it will happen, soon.<\/p>\n ..................................................................<\/p>\n Just goes to show that at least some DWBs do<\/em> have something to say (as Philip Hensher<\/a> recently emphasised). \u00a0Here's a comment on that point from writer and critic\u00a0Tomiwa Owolade.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I could go on and on about the poems that OCR might choose to illustrate and explore the human (rest of) nature relationship, but I'm just adding one before I stop. What to choose? \u00a0Something by a dead white bloke...<\/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":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8129","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=8129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8129\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}