Tuesday, February 07, 2006

The Mower

The mower stalled, twice; kneeling, I found
A hedgehog jammed up against the blades,
Killed. It had been in the long grass.

I had seen it before, and even fed it, once.
Now I had mauled its unobtrusive world
Unmendably. Burial was no help:

Next morning I got up and it did not.
The first day after a death, the new absence
Is always the same; we should be careful

Of each other, we should be kind
While there is still time.

Philip Larkin

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is I Yuan, I am sorry to hear of the lawnmover. In the cities of China we have no hedgehog or garden to move. What is the hedgehog?

I will get big points for knowing this!!!

I am very sorry of your loss. Was it your pet?

Martyn Amos said...

Don't worry, I haven't actually killed a hedgehog - it's just a poem I liked.

Anonymous said...

Yet I don't understand again ;)

Martyn Amos said...

Click for hedgehog.

As killed by Philip Larkin, and described in his poem The Mower. Essentially, he's saying that life is precious and fragile, and that we shouldn't take it or others for granted.