Quarterly, is it, money reproaches me:
‘Why do you let me lie here wastefully?
I am all you never had of goods and sex.
You could get them still by writing a few cheques.’
So I look at others, what they do with theirs:
They certainly don’t keep it upstairs.
By now they’ve a second house and car and wife:
Clearly money has something to do with life
—In fact, they’ve a lot in common, if you enquire:
You can’t put off being young until you retire,
And however you bank your screw, the money you save
Won’t in the end buy you more than a shave.
I listen to money singing. It’s like looking down
From long french windows at a provincial town,
The slums, the canal, the churches ornate and mad
In the evening sun. It is intensely sad.
Analysis:
The poem Money by Philip Larkin makes one think deeply about the meaning and importance of money itself. Money and finances heavily impact our lives as money is how we pay for things to be able to survive and provide for ourselves and others. Money can heavily impact our quality of life and how content we are with ourselves. I wish it did not have to be that way, but unfortunately for many of us it is, which is why it is so important that that the way we manage our money is designed from an empathetic and holistic point of view. As a society we are obsessed with material possessions and spending and this poem does a great job of criticizing that. It makes me wonder how banking can change to help people have a healthier relationship with money/finances. I question what type of data-analyzing methods can be used to nudge people to think differently about their money and use it for better reasons? What is a bank allowed to nudge you to do with your money? How can a bank better take financial stress away from people, and make their experience with money more enjoyable and less “intensely sad?”
Citation:
Larkin, P. (n.d.). Money by Philip Larkin. Poetry Foundation. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48421/money-56d229a672857
