"A Study Of Reading Habits" by Philip Larkin
When getting my nose in a book
Cured most things short of school,
It was worth ruining my eyes
To know I could still keep cool,
And deal out the old right hook
To dirty dogs twice my size.
Later, with inch-thick specs,
Evil was just my lark:
Me and my coat and fangs
Had ripping times in the dark.
The women I clubbed with sex!
I broke them up like meringues.
Don't read much now: the dude
Who lets the girl down before
The hero arrives, the chap
Who's yellow and keeps the store
Seem far too familiar. Get stewed:
Books are a load of crap.
[note: A talk last night with a friend made me revisit my old webpage -- perhaps you remember, "Mistakes: A Diary"?; on that webpage I found the quote from W. Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker, which precedes this post and which has no bearing on anything in my life, but I remember liking it then, and I still like now; and that discussion of past mistakes and what I may or may not have learned from them has led me to remember the Larkin, and today I feel vaguely sick, and I don't know if that's due to the fear that I might not be learning from my mistakes, or a side-effect of getting four hours of sleep.]
Cured most things short of school,
It was worth ruining my eyes
To know I could still keep cool,
And deal out the old right hook
To dirty dogs twice my size.
Later, with inch-thick specs,
Evil was just my lark:
Me and my coat and fangs
Had ripping times in the dark.
The women I clubbed with sex!
I broke them up like meringues.
Don't read much now: the dude
Who lets the girl down before
The hero arrives, the chap
Who's yellow and keeps the store
Seem far too familiar. Get stewed:
Books are a load of crap.
[note: A talk last night with a friend made me revisit my old webpage -- perhaps you remember, "Mistakes: A Diary"?; on that webpage I found the quote from W. Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker, which precedes this post and which has no bearing on anything in my life, but I remember liking it then, and I still like now; and that discussion of past mistakes and what I may or may not have learned from them has led me to remember the Larkin, and today I feel vaguely sick, and I don't know if that's due to the fear that I might not be learning from my mistakes, or a side-effect of getting four hours of sleep.]