Afternoons -- Philip Larkin

Guest poem submitted by Anita:

(Poem #1558) Afternoons Summer is fading: The leaves fall in ones and twos From trees bordering The new recreation ground. In the hollows of afternoons Young mothers assemble At swing and sandpit Setting free their children. Behind them, at intervals, Stand husbands in skilled trades, An estateful of washing, And the albums, lettered Our Wedding, lying Near the television: Before them, the wind Is ruining their courting-places That are still courting-places (But the lovers are all in school), And their children, so intent on Finding more unripe acorns, Expect to be taken home. Their beauty has thickened. Something is pushing them To the side of their own lives. -- Philip Larkin

I came across this poem in the Philip Larkin site [1] and really liked the
images captured so neatly in this poem, especially the last stanza. It is
one of those 'snapshots in time' where the passage of time has been brought
out very vividly. This poem was a part of his widely acclaimed 'The Whitsun
Weddings' collection.

Larkin is a heavily represented poet on Minstrels, so I have nothing further
to add by way of biography.

Anita.

[1] http://www.philiplarkin.com