Mr Bleaney Analysis

'This was Mr Bleaney's room. He stayed
The whole time he was at the Bodies, till
They moved him.' Flowered curtains, thin and frayed,
Fall to within five inches of the sill,

Whose window shows a strip of building land,
Tussocky, littered. 'Mr Bleaney took
My bit of garden properly in hand.'
Bed, upright chair, sixty-watt bulb, no hook

Behind the door, no room for books or bags -
'I'll take it.' So it happens that I lie
Where Mr Bleaney lay, and stub my fags
On the same saucer-souvenir, and try

Stuffing my ears with cotton-wool, to drown
The jabbering set he egged her on to buy.
I know his habits - what time he came down,
His preference for sauce to gravy, why

He kept on plugging at the four aways -
Likewise their yearly frame: the Frinton folk
Who put him up for summer holidays,
And Christmas at his sister's house in Stoke.

But if he stood and watched the frigid wind
Tousling the clouds, lay on the fusty bed
Telling himself that this was home, and grinned,
And shivered, without shaking off the dread

That how we live measures our own nature,
And at his age having no more to show
Than one hired box should make him pretty sure
He warranted no better, I don't know.

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the word "Bodies" used here might be ambigous.it could be the name of a house/inn, or it could be a reference to the morgue. Mr. Bleaney is also described as a vey passive entity.

| Posted on 2009-10-06 | by a guest

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Upon initial inspection the poem Mr Bleaney shows the Larkin persona becoming an occupant of a room that previously belonged to Mr Bleaney. The poem begins to describe the room and then goes on to describe what is left of Mr Bleaney. Each detail about Mr Bleaney seem almost trivial and almost irrelevant; ‘his habits-what time he came down, his preference for sauce to gravy’. The effect of this trivial description of the previous occupant is to emphasize his lack of identity. He lived here but all that remains of him are these irrelevant facts. ‘I know his habits’ suggest that Mr Bleaney was a man with a very structured life without any spontaneity.
Larkin uses a contemplative tone throughout as the Larkin persona seems to compare himself to Mr Bleaney, ‘stub my fags on the same saucer’ or ‘I lay where Mr Bleaney lay’. Then again later in the poem he stands in the same place as the Larkin Persona is doing during the poem watching the tousling winds. The question on the mind of the pet throughout is whether Mr Bleaney is defined only by the impact he made and the objects he left on this earth. Larkin questions whether you can detach Mr Bleaney from, what seems to an outsider, a futile and pointless life, of whether there is more to this man than what he has left behind. The final line ‘I don’t know’ leaves this question up to the reader for their own interpretation as does the poem as a whole.
Mr Bleaney, on a metaphorical level, is not just an old man who lived in the room but in fact symbolises all of Larkin’s feelings and fears about the monotony of old age life. Even within the poem he may not exist and just is a literary device that Larkin uses. The idea that a man can die and leave no impact upon the world is a very scary idea and one that this poem is based on. The lack of identity is shown by the trivial facts stated about Mr Bleaney and the Larkin persona is scared that he may also leave this world without imposing any of himself upon it. The description of the room seem to also symbolise Mr Bleaney in the ‘thin and frayed curtains’ or ‘fusty bed’ showing the weakness of old age until in the final stanza he leaves the world in a ‘hired box’. This box can be seen as the room that both Mr Bleaney and the Larkin persona are renting or a coffin.
The seven quatrains are written in an ABAB rhyme scheme and also iambic pentameter almost leaving the reader feeling claustrophobic with the rigid pattern of this poem that symbolises the rigid pattern of old age life. There is no fragmentation at all in the poem, enjambment used throughout, all to emphasize the monotony of life. The enjambment perhaps used to show how life flows past us as the sentences flow past lines, and we can do nothing to stop it. The poem was originally called Mr Gridley, again a symbol for the grid-like monotonous pattern of anonymity that Larkin is so scared to fall into in old age. Both the Larkin Persona and Mr Bleaney stand and watch the tousling wind. This is pathetic fallacy the frigid wind showing once again the monotonous pattern of old age, the main theme throughout the poem. Wind is normally something blowing in many directions with much energy, so the idea of a frigid wind seems cold, lifeless and nothing like wind. This is the same as the way that life normally represents freedom and happiness but old age life is like a frigid version of life, without excitement or fun but just a repeated pattern of normality and anonymity.

| Posted on 2009-09-27 | by a guest

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stanza two is hard to write about the rest is easy though

| Posted on 2009-09-21 | by a guest

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'I lie where Mr Bleaney lay'
This shows that Larkin is comparing both his and Mr Bleaney's lives, they are not very different because they are both predictable, they both could only afford to rent a room and they are both pointless and dull.

| Posted on 2009-09-17 | by a guest

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Fusty bed” and “thin and frayed” reveals that the room is cold, damp and decaying however this too could be a reference to the remainder of Philip Larkin’s life and body, - rianna tomkins

| Posted on 2009-09-10 | by a guest

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Not only does the poem show Mr Bleaneys life and lifestyle but we can assume that the speaker in the poem is Philip Larkin himself and therefore the poem also reflects Larkins Life. Larkin has created a masterpiece. Even the title, Mr Bleaney conjures images in our heads about the character and that is before we have even started the first stanza. We get an image of a bleak dull older man.

| Posted on 2009-06-13 | by a guest

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"one hired box" is ambiguous. It could be referring to the room BLeaney and the persona rented but it also has overtones of death. It suggests a coffin and that life is only for rent and it's how we live it and make the most of it that counts.

| Posted on 2009-03-30 | by a guest

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ibelieve the poem is full of knowledge and language. It is truly a great poem.

| Posted on 2009-02-06 | by a guest

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" i know his habits" suggests that Mr Bleaney was a man with a very structured life, with a strict regime without any spontaneity.
Also, " one hired box" is a very ambiguous statement, and could be taken to mean that all his possessions could fit into one box- thus meaning that he was also strict with his money, taking no pleasure with material things.
" Behind the door- no room for books or bags" suggests that the room is very small, cramped and with little room for storage.
" Fousty bed" gives the impression that the room is damp, cold and decaying
The above decriptions give the general impression that the room is bleak and uninteresting and not at all comfortable.
" That how we live measures our own nature" is the narrator questioning how much he really knows about Mr Bleaney - while all this habits were listed in the previous stanza - he asks the question - do our personal belongings and the material items that we own define us as a person - this is the narrator telling us that there is a lot that he does not know about Mr Bleaney- for example, what he was like as a man.
He also tells us that while he knows all of his habits he does not know whether or not Mr Bleaney was happy with this his life or whether he deserved more.

| Posted on 2009-01-26 | by a guest

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The fact that only Mr. Bleaney is talked about in the poem, with the rest of the people featured in it going unnamed creates a feeling of isolation on Mr. Bleaney's part and on the part of the narrator

| Posted on 2009-01-19 | by a guest

.: Bleany :.

" on the same saucer-souveneir, and try'
this line shows he hasnt brought enough with him and still used mr bleanys things

| Posted on 2008-05-21 | by a guest