Home is so Sad

Themes
Attachment, loss, nostalgia and disappointment.

Content
Larkin is describing a "Home" which has come alive through anthropomorphism  and is "bereft" at having no people currently living within it. It is people that make a house a home and "Home" suggest a sense of belonging.

Analysis

• The poem is simple and straightforward, with a lack of imagery and adjectives and an ABABA rhyme scheme to make the poem universal.
• Larkin begins with the blunt statement that "Home is so sad", thus mirroring the title. This sadness can not only be related to the fact that there is currently no one in the house but also that homes can be disappointing and don't live up to expectations.
• The "Home" itself has stayed loyal to its owners, with it still being"shaped to the comfort of the last to go" and trying to "win" the owners "back". It is unclear where exactly the owners have gone but it seems likely that they are away on holiday if they have left their belongings behind. The "Home" has an emotional response to these people and is trying to prove its worth but with each passing day, the house "withers" and breaks down without any human warmth. The register of loss progresses throughout the first stanza from "left" to "bereft" to "theft", each one a progressively greater violation (abandonment, bereavement, crime). The owners have been physically snatched away and the reader themselves feels the emotive loss of the house.
• As is most often the case, Larkin has to include something critical and this comes in the form of the statement that homes are often filled with disappointment.  They are a "joyous shot at how things ought to be" which can never quite match up to expectations and have "Long fallen wide". People gain a sense of pride from owning a home which they can always return to but these homes are inevitably ruined by ill-feeling or do not match the life one expected for oneself.
• The poem then returns to more tender images though which we envision the house as it "was"- the past. We are told to "Look" but cannot touch as the past cannot be returned to and the "Home" does not want any intrusion. The "pictures" and "the music in the piano stool" are all nostalgic and detail a person's life simply though the memories and events on show. However, the music which would have once been on show is now "in" the piano, highlighting that a lid has been shut on the past. The final line consists of only two words: "That vase." This simple item which means nothing to the reader has significant meaning to the homeowner as it contains endearing memories and stories. Flowers also connote joy and new life but Larkin builds a sombre atmosphere in that the items and memories are being remembered and thus, must have passed-resigned to the past evermore. The past is gone and cannot be returned to.
• Therefore, "Home is so Sad" as it remains a frozen snapshot of how life once was and  is now, just as it was in the past, unable to live up to expectations.

Links to other poems
'Love Songs in Age'-nostalgia, disappointment at failed expectations, music as a source of memories, loss
'The Whitsun Weddings"- a promise (either marriage or home) that will ultimately fail
'For Sidney Bechet'-memories and the hope that they once held
'Afternoons'-decline and decay
'Mr Bleaney'- what makes and constitutes a home?

Academic links: http://enorfaslitionachampain.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/home-is-so-sad.html