Philip Larkin

Myxomatosis

Myxomatosis - meaning Summary

Stasis and Evasive Anger

The poem stages a moment of sudden, painful stasis in which the speaker and an implied other confront an unexplained hurt. Trapped in a silent field, the speaker resists analysis and instead issues a brusque, physical reply and cleans a stick. The refusal to name the wound—likened to hidden jaws and suppuration—suggests an emotional infection that cannot be fixed by stillness or waiting, exposing anger, detachment, and defensive survival.

Read Complete Analyses

Caught in the center of a soundless field While hot inexplicable hours go by What trap is this? Where were its teeth concealed? You seem to ask. I make a sharp reply, Then clean my stick. I'm glad I can't explain Just in what jaws you were to suppurate: You may have thought things would come right again If you could only keep quite still and wait.

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