Strangers

Philip Arthur Larkin

1922 to 1985

Poem Image

The eyes of strangers 
Are cold as snowdrops,
Downcast, folded,
And seldom visited.

And strangers' acts 
Cry but vaguely, drift 
Across our attention's 
Smoke-sieged afternoons

And to live there, among strangers, 
Calls for teashop behaviours 
Setting down the cup,
Leaving the right tip,

Keeping the soul unjostled.
The pocket unpicked,
The fancies lurid,
And the treasure buried