"Next, Please" by Philip Larkin is not actually a chapter but an individual short poem. Poems included in books of poetry are generally not referred to as "chapters".
Although "Next, Please" does use some of the ornate language and archaic diction that Larkin eschewed in his mature works, it is thematically quite similar. It has much of the same emotional tone and theme as Larkin's mature work, and emphasizes that life includes much unpleasantness, that pleasure...
"Next, Please" by Philip Larkin is not actually a chapter but an individual short poem. Poems included in books of poetry are generally not referred to as "chapters".
Although "Next, Please" does use some of the ornate language and archaic diction that Larkin eschewed in his mature works, it is thematically quite similar. It has much of the same emotional tone and theme as Larkin's mature work, and emphasizes that life includes much unpleasantness, that pleasure is fleeting, that things' reality are never as good as we had imagined, and that after a generally tedious life, we die.
The ship imagery of the poem stands as a metaphor for the things we anticipate coming to us in the future that will bring us forms of gratification. In reality, the future is much like the past and the present, and when it does arrive, it immediately becomes the past, rather than becoming something lasting. The only thing seeking us which will stay with us permanently is death:
Only one ship is seeking us, a black-
Sailed unfamiliar ... In her wake
No waters breed or break.
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