High Windows (poem)

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"High Windows" is a poem by Philip Larkin, published in the 1974 collection of the same name.

It comprises 5 verses of 4 lines, and the rhyming scheme tightens as the poem progresses, from essentially unrhymed in verse one to abab by the final stanza. At the same time the subject matter becomes more formal. Verse One (When I see a couple of kids} is apparently an envious comment on the sexuality of the young, whilst the final one seems to reflect Larkin's agnostic world-view. It reads

Rather than words comes the thought of high windows;

The sun-comprehending glass,

And beyond it, the deep blue air, that shows

Nothing, and is nowhere, and is endless.