Back-Page Poems

‘Since the majority of me’

Since the majority of me

Rejects the majority of you,

Debating ends forthwith, and we

Divide. And sure of what to do

We disinfect new blocks of days

For our majorities to rent

With unshared friends and unwalked ways.

But silence too is eloquent:

A silence of minorities

That, unopposed at last, return

Each night with cancelled promises

They want renewed. They never learn.

Philip Larkin

Taken from Philip Larkin’s ‘XX Poems’, Faber & Faber.

Last revised: 20/02/02