BORN YESTERDAY:

By Alannah and Kate

CONTENT:

The poem is generally about when babies are born people wish all

the best for them, they wish the baby to be successful and

beautiful but Phillip Larkin wishes the baby to be nothing out of

the ordinary, just plain and simple.

The poem was actually written for Sally Amis, the new born

daughter of Kingsley Amis, a Friend of Phillip Larkin's.

LANGUAGE:

At the start of the poem it opens with a natural image e.g. a new

born baby. “Tightly-folded bud” This Metaphor means the baby is pure

and protected. Also a bud is the new part of a flower so this would be a

metaphor for the new born baby.

In the second Stanza lines 14-21 Philip Larkin makes the poem

sound negative. He says, “May you be ordinary”. This could come

across as an insult but actually he just wants the new born to be honest

and realistic.

He also uses the phrase, ”Catching of happiness”. This is a

metaphor meaning you can’t catch happiness so just be happy with what

you’ve got.

IMAGERY:

Philip Larkin used Imagery to show us what he was feeling when

he wrote the poem for his friend’s baby. “Tightly-folded bud.” The

first image in our mind when we read this is of a baby being fragile

and protected from the world. A Tight Bud means its small, but its

going to grow into something.

He also used the phrase “Running of a spring of innocence.” This

makes us think about the baby coming from something pure and

faultless.

STRUCTURE:

The poem has used two stanzas, the first stanza is all about

celebrating and introducing a new life into the world but then starts to

go into how he doesn’t want the baby to be out of the ordinary.

The second stanza talks about how it is okay to be “nothing

uncustomary”.

It also talks about how you should be content with the way you

are and you can’t ‘catch’ happiness.

MESSAGE/MEANING

All in all, the message of the poem is there’s nothing wrong with

being normal. Also being pretty and successful isn’t always perfect.

Sometimes being that kind of person is just out of reach so you

should wish for what is feasible and hope to achieve your dreams.