MR BLEANEY BY PHILIP LARKIN REFERENCE TO CONTEXT

MR BLEANEY BY PHILIP LARKIN

REFERENCE TO CONTEXT

That how we live measures our own nature,
And at this age having no more to show
Than one hired box should make him pretty sure
He warranted no better, I don't know.
That how we live ........... I don't know.

REFERENCE

(i) Poem: Mr Bleaney

(ii) Poet: Philip Larkin

CONTEXT

(i) Occurrence: End of the Poem (Lines 25-28/28)

(ii) Content: 
The poet is lodging in a room that once belonged to a man called Mr Bleaney. As he observes the bare furnishings, he draws intimate conclusions about the former lodger. The predecessor was a poor fellow without any belongings, and without any house of his own. He was an eccentric kind of old man, and had no literary or artistic tastes. He used to prefer sauce to gravy; spend his summer holiday with his relatives in Frinton, and Christmas with his sister in Stoke. Although he may not intend to, the poet himself is very much like or perhaps turning into Mr Bleaney.

EXPLANATION

In these lines the poet is measuring his own worth in the mode of comparison with Mr. Bleaney. The statement "The how we live measures our own nature" is a judgment of Mr. Bleaney, and his life. It is also an ironic reference to the Humanist dictate of "Man as the measure", and the phrase carries associations from Hamlet and particularly of Hamlet's soliloquies and Polonius' advice to his son. Having lived a whole life, Mr Bleaney achieves no more than "one hired box". The term "hired box" refers to coffin. Finally, the poet refuses to declare his own views, although the fact that he has raised the question about the value of Mr Bleaney's life is, in itself, perhaps sufficient indication of an overall stance. Whatever he concludes about the value and purpose of Mr Bleaney's life, a previous tenant, must also inevitably apply to himself. In these final lines it is difficult to decide whose voice the poet is echoing. Is it the Landlay's? Is it his own inner doubting voice? Phrases like "warranted no better" remain ambiguous, and may properly belong to the poet himself, imagining the terms of a final tribunal in the afterlife.

MR BLEANEY BY PHILIP LARKIN

But if he stood and watched the frigid wind
Tousling the clouds, lay on the fusty bed
Telling himself that this was home, and grinned,
And shivered, without shaking off the dread
But if he stood ........... shaking off the dread.

REFERENCE

(i) Poem: Mr Bleaney

(ii) Poet: Philip Larkin

CONTEXT

(i) Occurrence: End of the Poem (Lines 21-24/28)

(ii) Content:

The poet is lodging in a room that once belonged to a man called Mr Bleaney. As he observes the bare furnishings, he draws intimate conclusions about the former lodger. The predecessor was a poor fellow without any belongings, and without any house of his own. He was an eccentric kind of old man, and had no literary or artistic tastes. He used to prefer sauce to gravy; spend his summer holiday with his relatives in Frinton, and Christmas with his sister in Stoke. Although he may not intend to, the poet himself is very much like or perhaps turning into Mr Bleaney.

EXPLANATION

These lines present a deep-rooted fear for the lodger, the fear of being trapped in the same cyclic anomie as the previous tenant. The word "But" is a clear change of mood and gear, moving towards further questions and uncertainties. The word marks the limits of the poet's assured knowledge, and from this point we move into the realms of the speculative and reflective. "Frigid wind" along with the reference to the "fusty bed" conjures up the sense of sexually unfulfilling quality of Mr Bleaney's life, bereft of sensuality and characterized by infertility and frigidity. "Clouds" here reflect Mr Bleaney's own vulnerability to the pressures of the world. The phrase "grinned and shivered" carries associations of the macabre here, with the skeletal Mr Bleaney grinning in the face of his environment, his life, and the limits of his own bodily life. The word "dread" which concludes the stanza, reinforces this sense of menace. In short, these lines emphasize the cold dreariness of the poem and give it a chilling edge.