"Home Is So Sad" by Philip Larkin

In the poem “Home Is So Sad”, the narrator describes his home when as he left it and how it didn’t change by the time he came back. In the first stanza, the narrator talks about the lack of change his home has describing the same form of comfort it still gives, but in a “withered” way. He also says a home is fit to the last person who leaves it, so it remains in that form hoping to draw that person back to it. By as time goes by, and no one returns, the house begins to wither and empty. The next stanza describes a home before it became so withered, a joyous home, the way things were meant to be. The narrator can still see how it used to be set up on the inside describing where furniture used to be.

This poem sounds like a middle-aged person coming back to the old house they grew up in as a child. The way the narrator compares the house to a “joyous” time, makes it sound like the house used to be full of life, kids, and adventures caught in all the photos described at the end. I picture the house being worn out and dusty now in comparison to a brand new house with new paint, furniture and spirits. I think revisiting his home was difficult for the narrator because he sees all the good times had in this house and can no longer go back to them, travel back to his familiar past, his familiar home. This poem may seem sad and desperate at first glance, but I think there is a slither of joy when the memories of such a joyful past are renewed in the narrator’s mind. Although the memories may make the narrator miss those times, the fact that he had them is a gift to treasure. Thus giving this poem a gentle, heartening tone to it, that warms the narrator and reader simultaneously.