Take One Home for the Kiddies
Take One Home for the Kiddies - meaning Summary
Children's Play Meets Blunt Mortality
Larkin’s short poem depicts children who insist their mother buy a living creature kept in a barren shop display. The initial excitement of acquiring a “living toy” quickly dissolves into boredom and a grim game of funerals. The poem sketches how childhood impulse and novelty sit alongside disregard and a casual encounter with mortality, suggesting a bleak view of domestic indifference and the transience of empathy.
Read Complete AnalysesOn shallow straw, in shadeless glass, Huddled by empty bowls, they sleep: No dark, no dam, no earth, no grass - Mam, get us one of them to keep. Living toys are something novel, But it soon wears off somehow. Fetch the shoebox, fetch the shovel - Mam, we're playing funerals now.
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