xxiv.

xxiv

Love, we must part now: do not let it be
Calamitious and bitter. In the past

There has been too much moonlight and self-pity:
Let us have done with it: for now at last
Never has sun more boldly paced the sky,
Never were hearts more eager to be free,
To kick down worlds, lash forests; you and I
No longer hold them; we are husks, that see
The grain going forward to a different use.

There is regret. Always, there is regret.
But it is better that our lives unloose,
As two tall ships, wind-mastered, wet with light,
Break from an estuary with their courses set,
And waving part, and waving drop from sight.

- by Philip Larkin

I have always been a huge fan of Philip Larkin and after reading some of his poems lately this one has really struck a chord with me over the last few months and I keep find myself going back to it. In particular the lines "Never has sun more boldly paced the sky/Never were hearts more eager to be free" - there is such clarity and such urgency to live. I find it to be a very sorrowful poem, but with a suggestion of hope that the love between these two people will always exist, as the speaker still addresses their significant other as "Love", the mention of "regret" is bold and insisted upon and as they part as equals, on their separate and inevitable "courses", they are "waving [...] waving". Sigh.