2017.02.15 High Windows by Pip Larkin | Postry Foundation POETRY FOUNDATION Home> Poems & Poets > Browse Poems > High Windows by Php Larkin High Windows BY PHILIP LARKIN When I see a couple of kids ‘And guess he’s fucking her and she’s or wearing a diaphragm, Everyone old has dreamed of all their lives Bonds and gestures pushed to one side Like an outdated combine harvester, And everyone young going down the long slide To happiness, endlessly. I wonder if back, Anyone looked at me, forty yea ‘And thought, That'll be the life; No God any more, or sweating in the dark About hell and that, or having to hide What you think of the priest. He And his lot will all go down the long slide Like free bloody birds. And immediately Rather than words comes the thought of high windows: The sun-comprehending glass, ‘And beyond it, the deep blue air, that shows Nothing, and is nowhere, and is endless. Philip Larkin, "High Windows" trom Collected Poems, Copyright @ Estate of Philip Larkin, Reprinted by permission of Faber and Faber, Ld. Source: Collected Poems (Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2001) RELATED CONTENT Discover this poem's context and related poetry, articles, and media, Porr hpsutwwn-postryfoundaionorgjpaems-and-poes/poomsidtll484t7” 122017.02.18. High Windows by Pip Larkin | Posty Fauaon Philip Larkin susieers Living, Disappointment & Failure, Growing Old, Midlife, Activities, Indoor Activities POETS REGION England POETIC TERMS Rhymed Stanza Report a problem with this poem. POETRY The oldest monthly devoted to verse in the English language, POETRY \\ygarpin February 2017 Table of Contents Buy This Issue Subscribe to Pootry Magazine Browse All Issues Back to 1912 hpsutwwn-postryfoundaionorgjpaems-and-poes/poomsidtll484t7”