Poem : "Mr. Bleaney" by Philip Larkin - analysed in full
The poem Mr Bleaney has three characters: Mr Bleaney; the house owner; and the new tenant, but centres around the life of one character, Mr Bleaney. The poem focuses on the house in which Mr Bleaney had a rented room for a number of years, until he moved out, or perhaps died. A new tenant is introduced to the vacated room, and he decides to stay. From the description of his old room and its contents, we are able to paint a picture of Mr Bleaney's monotonous existence and lifestyle. There is great irony in that he fails to realise that by wanting to live in the marked room of Mr Bleaney, and by acquiring his habits, he is in fact a replica of the figure he contemplates and condemns; although in the last two stanzas there is a suggested subconscious dread that he is following in the same footsteps as Mr Bleaney.
'Mr Bleaney' has seven stanzas, each with four lines, formed with an alternate rhyming scheme. It is written in iambic pentameters.
The very name Bleaney immediately gives a feel of dull blandness, of dreariness and a lack of energy, spirit, colour and light. A Mr Bleaney would perhaps then be a sad, hopeless man, whose boring life is almost a non-event. We never actually get to meet Mr Bleaney in the poem, but we get to learn a lot about him and are left at the end with the feeling that we have. It says in the poem, "How we live measures our nature," and if this is true, then Mr Bleaney certainly deserves his name.
The poem centres on a description of the room to let, where Mr Bleaney lived for a number of years. The room has Mr Bleaney stamped all over it: his few possessions (a souvenir plate and ashtray), still litter what little space there is. Alliteration adds to the blandness of the room he lived in, with the phrase "same saucer-souvenir," which is effective as it emphasises the blandness and flatness in the room. It has no lampshade nor curtain hook; curtains too short; furnished minimally with merely a bed and upright chair, leaving no place to
'Mr Bleaney' has seven stanzas, each with four lines, formed with an alternate rhyming scheme. It is written in iambic pentameters.
The very name Bleaney immediately gives a feel of dull blandness, of dreariness and a lack of energy, spirit, colour and light. A Mr Bleaney would perhaps then be a sad, hopeless man, whose boring life is almost a non-event. We never actually get to meet Mr Bleaney in the poem, but we get to learn a lot about him and are left at the end with the feeling that we have. It says in the poem, "How we live measures our nature," and if this is true, then Mr Bleaney certainly deserves his name.
The poem centres on a description of the room to let, where Mr Bleaney lived for a number of years. The room has Mr Bleaney stamped all over it: his few possessions (a souvenir plate and ashtray), still litter what little space there is. Alliteration adds to the blandness of the room he lived in, with the phrase "same saucer-souvenir," which is effective as it emphasises the blandness and flatness in the room. It has no lampshade nor curtain hook; curtains too short; furnished minimally with merely a bed and upright chair, leaving no place to