All is Vanity - Lord Byron

Fame, wisdom, love, and power were mine,

And health and youth possessed me;

My goblets blushed from every vine,

And lovely forms caressed me;

I sunned my heart in beauty’ eyes,

And felt my soul grow tender;

All earth can give, or mortal prize,

Was mine of regal splendour.

I strive to number o’er what days

Remembrance can discover,

Which all that life or earth displays

Would lure me to live over.

There rose no day, there rolled no hour

Of pleasure unembittered;

And not a trapping decked my power

That galled not while it glittered.

The serpent of the field, by art

And spells, is won from harming;

But that which soils around the heart,

Oh! who hath power of charming?

It will not list to wisdom’s lore,

Nor music’s voice can lure it;

But there it stings for evermore

The soul that must endure it.

- My interpretation of this is that a life can be filled with what appears to be wonderful 'things', fame and power etc. You can feel like you have everything however 'it will not list to wisdom's lore, nor music's voice can lure it' if it is all vanity and goes no deeper in your soul. This vanity curses your life hence 'it stings for evermore the soul that must endure it'. It is better for humans to live a life which is honest and real even if it is not perfect as those who have the glamorous lives everyone so aspires to have. It is harder to determine who and what is real in a world filled with vanity.

Fiction and the Reading Public - Philip Larkin

Give me a thrill, says the reader,

Give me a kick;I don't care how you succeed, or

What subject you pick.

Choose something you know all about

That'll sound like real life:

Your childhood, your Dad pegging out,

How you sleep with your wife.

But that's not sufficient, unless

You make me feel good -

Whatever you're 'trying to express'

Let it be understood

That 'somehow' God plaits up the threads,

Makes 'all for the best',

That we may lie quiet in our beds

And not be 'depressed'.

For I call the tune in this racket:

I pay your screw,

Write reviews and the bull on the jacket -

So stop looking blue

And start serving up your sensations

Before it's too late;

Just please me for two generations -

You'll be 'truly great'.

- Larkin is brilliant! This highlights his pressure as a writer from the readers who he feels want to take something of his experience from him. He views the public as being demanding of him and I feel the poem grudges the public and how critical they can be of anothers experience. If they are not entertained somewhat by it then they don't want to hear about it.