23
09
2008
Philip Larkin on the Fear of Death
Posted by: RC in Commonplace Book, tags: death, Philip LarkinThis is a special way of being afraid
No trick dispels. Religion used to try,
That vast moth-eaten musical brocade
Created to pretend we never die,
And specious stuff that says No rational being
Can fear a thing it will not feel, not seeing
That this is what we fear—no sight, no sound,
No touch or taste or smell, nothing to think with,
Nothing to love or link with,
The anaesthetic from which none come round.–from “Aubade” by Philip Larkin
Bonus Link:
Philip Larkin’s almost perfect poem by A.N. Wilson
