A Study of Reading Habits - Philip Larkin

When getting my nose in a book

Cured most things short of school,

It was worth ruining my eyes

To know I could still keep cool,

And deal out the old right hook

To dirty dogs twice my size

Later, with inch-thick specs,         (specs = glasses)      

Evil was just my lark:                    (lark: 장난, 농담)

Me and my cloak and fangs           (fang: 송곳니)

Had ripping times in the dark         (ripping: 훌륭한, 멋진)

The women I clubbed with sex!

I broke them up like meringues.      (meringues: 머랭- 말랑한 과자의 한 종류)

Don't read much now: the dude

Who lets the girl down before

The hero arrives, the chap

Who's yellow and keeps the store     (Who's yellow: 겁에 질린 사람들)

Seem far too familiar. Get stewed:

Books are a load of crap.

  I think the topic of this poem is wrong reading habits. There are many hard things to understand this poetry with interpretation only. The content of this is that a boy who has been treated as a outcast read many books which have sexual expression and violence. These books made the boy ruin, and after many years, when the boy became old, he think the books are useless.

  I got a moral lesson that selecting good books is very important.