Mr Bleaney

In "Mr. Bleaney", Larkin delves into the severity of a life hardly lived.  The language is drab, similar to the fraying curtains in the deceased Mr. Belaney's room.  It is evident that Bleaney led a life of loneliness, cyclically humdrum, and eventually died in his solitude.   The poem is written through the eyes of Bleaney's landlord who, after the death of his tenant, takes Bleaney's place in a similar life of loneliness and monotony.  Larkin writes, "I'll [the landlord will] take it.' So it happens that I lie/ Where Mr .Bleaney lay, and stub my fags/ On the same saucer-souvenir, and try." The similarities between the landlord and Bleney are evident, and it seems Larkin is foreshadowing a similar demise for the landlord to that of Bleaney, whose very name sounds watery and forgettable.

“Mr. Bleaney” is a commentary on just how easy it is to fall into the trap of monotony.  We get a very detailed portrait of Mr. Bleaney—his job, routine, and lack of interests are detailed—;however, even after the specifics, his life remains entirely forgettable.  The landlord literally replaces Bleaney and shows that loneliness and disinterest—similar to quicksand—are capable of slowly suffocating those who do not expect them.

His final lines reiterate his intention with the work.  “That how we live measures our own nature, 
And at his age having no more to show 
Than one hired box should make him pretty sure 
He warranted no better, I don't know.”  Evidently, it does not matter whether or not Larkin’s readers truly understand the inner workings of Bleaney.  His mind may have been great and he may have been an admirable man; however, he was judged on how he lived, what he actually accomplished, or in Bleaney’s case, failed to accomplish.  Good intentions equate to emptiness, similar to what Bleaney had to show at the end of his life.

 Larkin, in some ways similar to ‘Self’s the Man’ adopts the persona of a middle class man like Mr Bleaney, one, though, who looks down upon the other. All the prior analysis of Mr Bleaney, to add a layer of irony to the poem, is filtered through this persona’s eyes, and not necessarily ‘true’.