The Building (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Philip Larkin
- First Published: 1974
- Type of Work: Lyric
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: Dreams, Human race, Flowers, Death or dying, Life and death, Hospitals, Cathedrals, Buildings
The Poem
“The Building” is a poem of nine seven-line stanzas plus a single final line. It is written in Philip Larkin’s characteristic rough iambic pentameter, with an equally characteristic subtle rhyme scheme. All the lines are not exactly ten syllables each; nevertheless, the pattern of stress is that of the iamb: a two-part (disyllabic), stressed-unstressed foot.
The poem is a description of a place that is never definitively named, although it is clearly a hospital or other health-care facility. The first stanza describes the building in contrast to what is...
[The entire page is 1455 words long]
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