"Aubade" is a poem by the English poet

Philip Larkin Philip Arthur Larkin (9 August 1922 – 2 December 1985) was an English poet, novelist, and librarian. His first book of poetry, ''The North Ship'', was published in 1945, followed by two novels, ''Jill'' (1946) and ''A Girl in Winter'' (1947 ...

, first published in 1977. The theme of the poem is the terror of death. The title refers to the poetic genre of

aubade An aubade is a morning love song (as opposed to a serenade, intended for performance in the evening), or a song or poem about lovers separating at dawn. It has also been defined as "a song or instrumental composition concerning, accompanying, or ev ...

, poems written about the early morning. "Aubade" has been described by Frank Wilson of the ''Philadelphia Inquirer'' as Larkin's last truly great poem. Larkin described it as an "in-a-funk-about-death" poem.

References in popular culture

* In the television show

Devs ''Devs'' is an American science fiction thriller television miniseries created, written, and directed by Alex Garland. It premiered on March 5, 2020, on FX on Hulu. Lily Chan ( Sonoya Mizuno) is a software engineer for Amaya, a quantum computi ...

, the first three and a half stanzas of the poem are read by the actor

Stephen McKinley Henderson Stephen McKinley Henderson (born August 31, 1949) is an American actor and director. Henderson trained at Juilliard School for acting and later became a resident member of the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis from 1976 to 1981. He came to promine ...

, initially as a voiceover, but later revealed to be his character Stewart speaking it as a warning to Forest.

References

External links

Full text of "Aubade"
at the Poetry Foundation. Poetry by Philip Larkin 1977 poems {{poetry-stub