A Study of Reading Habits
When getting my nose in a book
Cured most things short of school,
It was worth ruining my eyes
To know I could still keep cool,
And deal out the old right hook
To dirty dogs twice my size.
Later, with inch-thick specs,
Evil was just my lark:
Me and my coat and fangs
Had ripping times in the dark.
The women I clubbed with sex!
I broke them up like meringues.
Don't read much now: the dude
Who lets the girl down before
The hero arrives, the chap
Who's yellow and keeps the store
Seem far too familiar. Get stewed:
Books are a load of crap.
Philip Larkin
الشرح
A Study of Reading Habits
By Philip Larkin
The meaning of the words:
Getting: to put something inside.
Cured: to solve.
Short: not having enough of something you need.
Ruining: to have short vision.
Cool: relax.
Deal out: to rutting.
Hook: a curved piece of l with a sharp point that you use for catching fish.
Size: how big or small something is.
Specs: eye glasses.
Evil: the opposite of virtue.
Lark: a bird or be happy.
Cloak: a warm piece of clothing like a coat that hangs from your shoulders and does not have sleeves.
Ripping: to rip a woman.
Club: heavy stick that is used as a weapon.
Meringues: peace of cake which is mix of sugar and egg.
Dude: city man who is elegant.
Far too: extremely familiar.
Get stewed: get drunk.
Crap: trash.
Paraphrasing:
When getting my nose in a book
Cured most things short of school,
The speaker is talking about the time when reading was one way he could avoid almost all his troubles except for school.
It was worth ruining my eyes
To know I could still keep cool,
And deal out the old right hook
To dirty dogs twice my size
Reading too much cause the speaker short eyes sight, but it seemed worth the danger of ruining his eyes to read stories which he could imagine himself a hero with skills and experience needed to defeat bullies who wear twice his sizes.
………………………………………… ……………………………………..
Later, with inch-thick specs,
When he became a teen-age he had to wear thick glasses because his eye sight had become so poor.
Evil was just my lark:
He felt that evil is all around him and controlling his act.
Me and my cloak and fangs
Had ripping times in the dark.
Then he imagines himself with cloak and fangs having a bad time and doing dirty things in the dark.
The women I clubbed with sex!
I broke them up like meringues.
He fancied himself a rapist who beat and tortured his vulnerable victims, leaving them broken and destroyed.
………………………………………… ………………………………………….
Don’t read much now: the dude
Who lets the girl down before
The hero arrives, the chap
Who's yellow and keeps the store,
Seem far too familiar. Get stewed:
Books are a load of crap.
When he became adult he doesn't read anymore because he becomes a secondary character who doesn’t save the girl until the hero come to her rescue and that was the store keeper whose face is yellow. Then he get drunk and said that it is better than reading because books are just full of useless lies.
Figure of speech:
1) In the first line there is a hyperbole. When he said "my nose in a book" he means that the book is too close.
2) In line six there is a phor when he described the bullies at the school as they are dirty dogs.
3) In line seven there is a hyperbole when he said that his glasses are inch-thick and here he meant that his eye sight becomes very poor.
4) In line eleven and twelve there is a phor when he described the women he is rapping like the meringues because he left them weak and destroyed.
5) In the last line there is a phor when he described the book as a crap because both of them are useless and full of rubbish.
Theme:
Analysis the wrong reading habits. It shows the damage that melodrama cause .These books are too simple, not realistic enough, and if a person is deficit to them he will be separated from reality he will learn the wrong lesson of life. He will identify with character that they do not really exist. Such a person will miss out the real life experience and he will grow to be a lonely, unsocial, and looser.
Purpose:
The poet aim to warn people about the bad affects of some kind of literature mainly the melodramatic works.
The speaker:
The speaker is a person who loves reading. At the first stage of his life he looks chubby, small, has no friend, wearing thick glasses, not strong enough, and has no experience. At the second stage of his life he used to read a lot of heroic books and identify himself as a hero. He has a sense of power. At the third stage of his life he has no friend and he is being drunker
ادعيلى ان الله يحقق الى فى بالى عاجلا غير اجل
و بالتوفيق لكى
.
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