{"id":636,"date":"2003-05-26T12:02:06","date_gmt":"2003-05-26T16:02:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/?p=636"},"modified":"2003-05-26T12:02:06","modified_gmt":"2003-05-26T16:02:06","slug":"another-gloomy-old-sod","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/?p=636","title":{"rendered":"Another gloomy old sod"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>was of course P. Larkin. Almost  the high point of my journalistic career came last year when Bob Conquest handed me his copy of <em>High Windows<\/em>, inscribed by Larkin with a joke about limericks.<\/p>\n\n<p>Those bits of Larkin that eveyone quotes and knows really aren&#8217;t his best. Even the characteristically gloomy ones aren&#8217;t his best either. What is wonderful are the moments when a coarse joy mounts from the darkness: something not just vulgar, but full of jazzy relish. <em>Livings<\/em>, in <em>High Windows<\/em> is one of my favourites. Here&#8217;s another:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote><p>Jan van Hogspeuw staggers to the door<br \/>\nAnd pisses at the dark. Outside, the rain<br \/>\nCourses in cart-ruts down the deep mud lane.<br \/>\nInside, Dirk Dogstoerd pours himself some more,<br \/>\nAnd holds a cinder to his clay with tongs,<br \/>\nBelching out smoke. Old Prijck snores with the gale,<br \/>\nHis skull face firelit; someone behind drinks ale,<br \/>\nAnd opens mussels, and croaks scraps of songs<br \/>\nTowards the ham-hung rafters about love.<br \/>\nDirk deals the cards. Wet century-wide trees<br \/>\nClash in surrounding starlessness above<br \/>\nThis lamplit cave, where Jan turns back and farts,<br \/>\nGobs at the grate, and hits the queen of hearts.<br \/><br \/>\nRain, wind and fire! The secret, bestial peace!<\/p><\/blockquote>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>was of course P. Larkin. Almost the high point of my journalistic career came last year when Bob Conquest handed me his copy of High Windows, inscribed by Larkin with a joke about limericks. Those bits of Larkin that eveyone &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/?p=636\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/?p=636\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}