1. Lecture notes on “Vers de Société”
Vers de Société(1971)
Means: social or familiar poetry, usually light and witty in tone and meant to amuse one‟s
friends; often based on a social event or written for a particular social occasion.
The poem takes the form of an invitation to a cocktail or dinner party, the speaker‟s initial
abrupt declining of the invitation, and his subsequent reflections on being alone and
loneliness. The poem ends with an unexpected change of mind: he accepts the invitation,
despite his reservations about wasting his time in company, because being alonemore often
brings morose and depressing introspection about one‟s failures and regrets rather than
enriching contemplation and creativity.
My wife and I have asked a crowd of craps
To come and waste their time and ours: perhaps
You’d care to join us?
The italics indicate that this is an invitation in someone else‟s hand (writing) – an invitation to
a dinner (cocktail?) party from a friend called Warlock-Williams (as we discover at the
poem‟s end). It is obviously a parody of a real invitation, and in its abruptness and crudeness
it shows the speaker‟s (not the inviter‟s) dismissive attitude to social gatherings of this sort.
In a pig‟s arse, friend.
Day comes to an end.
The gas fire breathes, the trees are darkly swayed. 5
And so Dear Warlock-Williams: I’m afraid –
Again, the obscenity indicates what attitude the speaker has to such events, but is followed
immediately by the mention of the day ending, and night coming. The gas fire and dark trees
suggest what will come: that nightfall and solitude bring with them an awareness of one‟s
aloneness and loneliness.
Funny how hard it is to be alone.
Being alone means that one is not distracted by others, and does not have the comfort of the
companionship of others.
I could spend half my evenings, if I wanted,
Holding a glass of washing sherry, canted
Over to catch the drivel of some bitch 10
Who‟s read nothing but Which;

2. The speaker has more invitations than he cares to get, and if he wanted could spend half of
his evenings in the company of others, drinking cheap alcohol and listening to the vacuous
ideas of people for whom he has no time or respect.
Just think of all the spare time that has flown
Straight into nothingness by being filled
With forks and faces, rather than repaid
Under a lamp, hearing the noise of wind, 15
And looking out to see the moon thinned
To an air-sharpened blade.
He considers how much of his life has been wasted in just this fashion – consumed by
meaningless socialising rather than disciplined work at his desk, where he‟d also be more
likely to observe the world around him, and to contemplate it in a sober, pensive fashion
A life, and yet how sternly it‟s instilled
All solitude is selfish.
It‟s his one and only life to do with as he pleases, but we‟re socialised into believing that
choosing to be alone is self-centred and unacceptable. The italics indicate that this is
society‟s view that the speaker is expressing (not his own).
No one now
Believes the hermit with his gown and dish 20
Talking to God (who‟s gone too);
People don‟t any longer believe in spending time meditating, or communing with God, in
whom no one any longer believes, anyway.
the big wish
Is to have people nice to you, which means
Doing it back somehow.
Virtue is social.
In the place of religion (which valued and respected hermits and austere religious practices
like solitary meditation) we now have social expectations that require reciprocity: being
invited to social events and inviting others in return.
Are, then, these routines

3. Playing at goodness, like going to church? 25
Something that bores us, something we don‟t do well
(Asking that ass about his fool research)
The speaker pursues the religion/society analogy, asking whether these social rituals have
replaced the defunct religious ones, but are still ones that bore us and at which we‟re
incompetent. We ask someone politely over the dinner table about the research he‟s doing,
but we‟re not really interested, and are just going through the motions.
But try to feel, because, however crudely,
It shows us what should be?
Too subtle, that.Too decent, too. 30
We don‟t perform these rituals well, but try to feel that they give us an indication of what
shouldpertain in society: that we have genuine fellow-feeling in human company – that being
sociable is somehow „good‟ and „virtuous‟. The speaker rejects this explanation as too
„subtle‟ and too „decent‟.
Oh hell,
Only the young can be alone freely.
Unlike older people, the young can be alone – perhaps because they‟re still optimistic about
life, have many years to look forward to, and have not yet made enough mistakes to have
remorse and regret.
The time is shorter now for company,
There is not much time left for the speaker to enjoy company.
And sitting by a lamp more often brings
Not peace, but other things.
Solitariness does not instil a sense of tranquillity and serenity; rather, the loneliness, the time
to reflect, brings oppressively to mind a sense of all the mistakes one has made in one‟s life,
and the fact that one cannot undo them.
Beyond the light stand failure and remorse 35
Whispering Dear Warlock-Williams: Why, of course –
The speaker feels that just beyond the circle of light that the desk lamp throws is the
darkness of failure and remorse (regret at things done or not done), and that being alone is
likely to bring these thoughts to mind, so he ends by accepting the invitation. By implication,
filling an evening with “forks and faces” is better than having to confront one‟s failures and
regrets alone.