When I was a child, I thought, <br />Casually, that solitude <br />Never needed to be sought. <br />Something everybody had, <br />Like nakedness, it lay at hand, <br />Not specially right or specially wrong, <br />A plentiful and obvious thing <br />Not at all hard to understand. <br /> <br />Then, after twenty, it became <br />At once more difficult to get <br />And more desired - though all the same <br />More undesirable; for what <br />You are alone has, to achieve <br />The rank of fact, to be expressed <br />In terms of others, or it's just <br />A compensating make-believe. <br /> <br />Much better stay in company! <br />To love you must have someone else, <br />Giving requires a legatee, <br />Good neighbours need whole parishfuls <br />Of folk to do it on - in short, <br />Our virtues are all social; if, <br />Deprived of solitude, you chafe, <br />It's clear you're not the virtuous sort. <br /> <br />Viciously, then, I lock my door. <br />The gas-fire breathes. The wind outside <br />Ushers in evening rain. Once more <br />Uncontradicting solitude <br />Supports me on its giant palm; <br />And like a sea-anemone <br />Or simple snail, there cautiously <br />Unfolds, emerges, what I am.<br /><br />Philip Larkin<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/best-society/
