Born yesterday Philip Larkin analysis

The poem was written for Sally Amis, the daughter of Philip Larkin’s dear friend,
Kingsley Amis. It was read at her funeral.

The poem is directed towards Sally, as a baby. He refers to her as the ‘tightly-
folded bud’. This phrase is not only used as a metaphor for the unfolding
possibilities of being alive and growing into her identity as she grows up and
emphasizing on her novelty to the world but is also used as imagery for how she
actually looks, like a tiny little bundle wrapped up in a blanket in the fetal
position, like a tightly folded bud.

Although he started on a neutral note, his tone turns more condescending is the
next few lines, he says that he wished her something that ‘none of the others
would’. It’s not the normal stuff that most people would wish for, about being
beautiful or running off a spring or of love and innocence. He’s almost mocking
the cliché unreal things that everybody wishes for. He thinks they’re not
completely possible because they’re not completely realistic. Not every child can
be beautiful and nobody’s life is filled with just innocence and love. Hence he
says that ‘should it prove possible’ then she’s a lucky girl. There’s nothing wrong
with what they wish for, but it’s most probably not going to happen but if it does,
then good for her. He’s being almost pessimistic.

But then he moves on to what his actual point is, what his actual wishes are, if
she doesn’t end up being beautiful or having a life filled with innocence and love,
which are not the most common things for any person to stumble upon, he lets
her know that there is nothing wrong with being ordinary and normal. In fact he
wishes that she be ordinary and normal just like other women, with an average
of talents, not too ugly or pretty. Just normal, nothing out of the usual. Because
anything out of the usual, he says makes you lose yourself and your mental
balance, you often obsess over it and get consumed by it instead of thinking of
the things that really matter. So maybe it is better being dull and boring and
usual and ordinary, if that means you have access to real, true, enriching,
captivating happiness, then its worth it. There is no need to be special when you
can be happy and ordinary. His whole message in the poem is for her to be
herself and be happy with who she in instead of wanting to be more than she was
meant to be because happiness is the most important thing and if she’s happy
with herself and her life, then even being ordinary is worth it.