english

1. Next Please
- Philip Larkin

2. Introduction
"Next, Please" appears in Philip Larkin's
1955 collection The Less Deceived.
Bluntly pessimistic, the poem offers an
extended metaphor for human beings'
unrealistic hopes and dreams: our "bad
habits of expectancy.“

3. Themes
Hope, Expectation, and Disappointment
The Certainty and Permanence of Death
Philip Larkin's "Next, Please" criticizes the human
tendency to build up false hopes rather than enjoying
the here and now. The speaker accuses humanity of
"bad habits of expectancy," of always looking toward
the horizon for what's coming "Next."

4. Next Please

5. Next Please
Yet still they leave us holding wretched stalks
Of disappointment, for, though nothing balks
Each big approach, leaning with brasswork
prinked,
Each rope distinct,
Flagged, and the figurehead wit golden tits
Arching our way, it never anchors; it's
No sooner present than it turns to past.
Right to the last

6. We think each one will heave to and unload
All good into our lives, all we are owed
For waiting so devoutly and so long.
But we are wrong:
Only one ship is seeking us, a black-
Sailed unfamiliar, towing at her back
A huge and birdless silence. In her wake
No waters breed or break.

7. Next Please
We think each one will heave to and unload
All good into our lives, all we are owed
For waiting so devoutly and so long.
But we are wrong:
Only one ship is seeking us, a black-
Sailed unfamiliar, towing at her back
A huge and birdless silence. In her wake
No waters breed or break.

8. Thank You - Ms Pavithra Jain
Department of English