Sad Steps

The poem revolves around the symbol of the moon, which is presented not only for what it has symbolized over the years (“Lozenge of love! Medallion of art!” [Line 11]), but also what it symbolizes for the poet in the moment as he looks out of his bedroom window at night. For the speaker, the moon symbolizes a lofty, intense presence, at once hard and bright, and absolutely separate from everything else, although its “wide stare” is “Far-reaching.” (Line 15). Interestingly, although the speaker is now a middle-aged realist rather than a young romantic, he is not beyond using the pathetic fallacy to present the moon. The pathetic fallacy occurs when a human quality or characteristic is attributed to an inanimate object. Staring is something that humans and animals do; the moon, as a celestial object sans eyes, cannot literally stare. The use of this figure of speech shows that the moon, though shorn of its romantic associations, still has power to make the speaker reflect on life; it symbolizes both youth and the passing of youth, as well as the continuity of life across generations. The moon is always there, although it represents different things for different people at different stages in the life cycle.

As a poet of the second half of the 20th-century, Larkin’s moon symbolism differs from many of his 19th-century predecessors who were more apt to see the moon as a “Lozenge of love!” (Line 11) that Larkin’s speaker finds so amusing. Lord Byron’s famous poem, “So We’ll Go No More a Roving” springs to mind. In that short lyric poem, a couple’s love has come to an end, and the speaker and his lover will no longer walk together under “bright” moonlight, even though that is what moonlit nights are for:

Though the night was made for loving,

        And the day returns too soon,

Yet we’ll go no more a roving

By the light of the moon (Byron, Lord. “So We’ll Go No More a Roving.” 1830. Poetry Foundation).

Although Larkin is in no mood to indulge in such a romantic scenario, his moon—with its unyielding “wide stare” (Line 15)—retains some of the majesty and strange power that so moved poets (and lovers) in previous literary ages. It just no longer, so to speak, aids and abets lovers as they go courting under it. Larkin’s moon is for realists who know what it means to move on to more sober assessment.