Philip Arthur Larkin was an English novelist, poet, and librarian. In 1945, he published his first book of poetry, The North Ship. In 1846 and 1847, he published two novels, Jill and A Girl in Winter, respectively. In 1945, he started gaining fame with the publication of The Less Deceived, his second collection of poems. Whitsun, published in 1964, followed the collection, and High Windows, published in 1974. He was a post-war and post-modernist writer. He received many honors, including the Queen’s Gold Medal for poetry. After the death of Sir John Betjeman in 1984, Larkin was offered a position of Poet Laureate, but he declined.
A Short Biography of Philip Larkin
Philip Larkin was born on 9th August 1992 in Coventry to Sydney Larkin and Eva Larkin. He was the only son in his family. His father was City Treasurer during the years 1922 to 1944. From 1930 to 1940, Philip Larkin attended the City’s King Henry VIII School. He would regularly contribute to the school magazine, The Coventarian, with his writings. He also edited the magazine in the last year of his school.
He went to St. John College, Oxford, after graduating from school. Though the war was going on, he continued to complete his degree without any interruption. Due to poor eyesight, he had failed his army medical test. In 1943, he graduated with First Class Honor in English.
“Ultimatum” was the first poem that he published in the national weekly Listener on 28th November 1940. In 1943, he published three poems in Oxford Poetry. These three poems were “Mythological Introduction,” “A Stone Church Damaged by a Bomb,” and “I Dreamed of an out-thrust arm of land.”
Larkin, after graduation, lived with his parents for some time. In November 1943, he got a job at Wellington, Shropshire, as a librarian. He studied to be eligible for a professional librarian and also sustained to write and publish. In 1945, he published ten poems in Oxford during wartime. These poems were later added in his collection, The North Ship. The collection was followed by two novels, Jill in 1946 and A Girl in Winter in 1947.
At the University College of Leicester, Larkin was appointed as an assistant librarian in 1946. In 1949, he became Associate of the Library Association, after completing his professional studies. At Queen’s University, Belfast, in 1940, he became a Sub-Librarian. His poetic activities were strengthened in Belfast. His poetry was published in various magazines and collections. His collection The Less Deceived was published in the Marvell Press.
On 21st March 1955, Larkin was appointed as the librarian at the University of Hull. In October of the same year, his collection, The Less Deceived, was published. This collection was the basis of his reputation as the leading poet and literary figure of the 20th century.
In 1964, he published another collection, The Whitsun Weddings. This collection was widely acclaimed and well-received. In 1965, Larkin was honored with the Queen’s Gold Medal for poetry.
From 1961 to 1971, Larkin contributed to monthly reviews of Jazz and recording for the Daily Telegraph. All these reviews and telegraphs we published in a collection All What Jazz: a Record Diary in 1970. Larkin also edited the Oxford Book of Twentieth-Century English Verse. The book was then published in 1973.
In 1974, he published his last collection High Windows. The collection confirmed him the honor of one of the finest poets in English history. In December 1977, his last great poem, “Aubade,” was published in The Times Literary Supplements. Had Larkin only written this poem, he would also have secured a place in English poetry.
Under the title of Required Writing: miscellaneous pieces 1955-1982, a collection of his reviews and essays were published in 1983. The collection was awarded a W.H. Smith Literary in 1984. Along with this, he also received many prizes for his poetry previously. In 1975, he won CBE; in 1976, he was awarded German Shakespeare-Pries.
From Oxford University, he received an award D.Litt. in 1984. He was also voted to the Board of the British Library. After the death of Sir John Betjeman in 1984, Larkin was offered a position of Poet Laureate, but he declined because of the associated media attention of the position.
In 1985, due to his throat infection, he was admitted to the hospital. On 11th June, he went through an operation to remove the esophagus. Larkin’s health was declining gradually. It was due to his deteriorating health that he could not attend the much prize award of Companion of Honor. The award ceremony took place in Buckingham, in November. On 2nd December 1985, Philip Larkin died at the age of 63.
Philip Larkin’s Literary Style
Poetic Style
The poetic style of Philip Larkin is characterized as the combination of an ordinary language, clarity, colloquial style, reflective quality, quietness, irony, and directness. It deals with commonplace experiences. His style has been called a sharp mixture of lyricism and gloominess by Jean Hartley.
The earliest works of Larkin have been influenced by T.S. Eliot, Yeats, and Auden. Whereas, the growing influence of Thomas Hardy in the early 1950s influenced his development of mature poetry. In the collection The Less Deceived, the mature style of Larkin is evident. He appears to be a detached, melancholic, and sometimes kindhearted observer in his later poetry. He focuses on ordinary people and their ordinary daily life experiences. Larkin does not like poems that are dependent on the classical and literary allusions. He called such poetry “myth-kitty.” He does not jumble up his poems with elaborated imagery. The poetic persona of Larkin is famous for its skepticism and plainness. Other features of his works include sudden opening, flexible, but highly structured forms of verse.
In his views about the poetry of Philip Larkin, Terence Hawkes comments that the poems in the collection of The North Ship are symbolic in nature and are evidence of the influence of symbolist lyrics of Yeats; however, his development of mature style is not his shift from Yeats to Hardy, but it is the surrounds “Yeatsian moment” in a “Hardyesque frame.” He also argues that the poetry of Philip Larkin revolves around two main events of losses: the loss of modernism and the loss of the British Empire. The loss of modernism displays in his poetry as a desire to discover an instance of realization or epiphany. Whereas the loss of England requires England to redefine itself in its own new term as previously, it would define Englishness as something opposite to anything.
For example, Philip Larkin Wrote the poem “Goring, Going” in 1972. The poem illustrates an idealistic or romantic passivity in its interpretation of England. In the poem, Larkin prophesies a complete elimination of rural areas and countryside and states his own idealized logic of national identity and togetherness.
“And that will be England gone,
The shadows, the meadows, the lanes,
The guildhalls, the carved choirs.
There’ll be books; it will linger on
In galleries; but all that remains
For us will be concrete and tyres.”
Larkin ends the poem with a statement that “I just think it will happen soon.”
The style of Philip Larkin is also bound with his themes. The theme of fatalism and death is recurrent throughout his poetry. The last poem, “Aubade,” deals with these two themes. The poems of Larkin, as commented by Andrew Motion, have the satisfaction of formal control. Its anger and hatred are illustrated in its energetic language. Andrew also contrasts two aspects of Larkin’s poetic personality.
On one hand, Larkin shows interest in symbolism and freely inventive narratives; on the other hand, a ruthless factuality and coarseness of language. Larkin has this life-augmenting struggle between the two opposite of his poetic personalities.
Thus, the poetry of Larkin is ambivalent. In short Andrew, Motion concludes that Lakin’s styles in his three mature collections have established attitude and imaginative daring. These collections testify to the wide sympathies in their extended descriptions of despair. The collections often contain passages that have transcendent beauty and illustrate the poetic comprehensiveness which is directly adopted by his literary followers.
Prose and non-fiction
Philip Larkin was an imminent critic of the contemporary art and literature of 20th-century modernism. In his collection of book reviews and essays Required Writing, his skepticism is highly subtle and enlightening. The introduction to the jazz reviews in the collection All What Jazz is also most critical and exacerbated. The introduction is an attack on modern JazzJazz that was then generalized as a critique of modern art. Despite the fact that Larkin was a willing enemy and critique of modernism, his writing shows the characteristics of modernism.
Philip Larkin and Elements of Positive Meanings in his Literary Works
The poetry and novels of Philip Larkin are the realistic descriptions of human life. His poems, particularly, depict the negativity and harshness of life. Larkin’s poems are mostly autobiographical. He has been through harsh times and bitter realities of life, which he expressed in his poem. This harshness in his life resulted in the peak of negativity in his poems.
Like other post-war poets, he talks about the meaninglessness of life. Death and destruction are subject matters of most of the poems. His poems are representative of sad-eyed realism. He belongs to the anti-romantic movement of poets. The poets of this movement write their poetry based on logic rather than romantic ideals. Because of the harsh attitude, these poets were highly criticized. Therefore, in Larkin’s poetry, it is hard to find any positivity as it is all based on the destruction of war, death, meaninglessness, and violence. However, if Larkin’s poetry is dug deeply, a hope or possibility of meaningful life can be seen.
However, some critics defend the poetry of Philip Larkin, particularly, and the “poetry of movement” in general. These critics assert that though the poetry has sad-eyed realism, we also find little positive elements in Larkin’s Poetry. For example, the poem “The Less Deceived” discusses avoidance; the message Larkin is trying to convey is to be “less deceived” rather than to be “more deceived.” Moreover, life is full of hurdles, and to go on in life without hurdles is impossible. Thus, the only solution to get away with these hurdles is to face them. With little efforts, negativity in life can be changed into positivity. Even though the mindset of Philip Larkin is negative, there is little positivity at the end of every poem. There is little hope; at least it is in every poem of Larkin if examined in detail.
The pessimistic attitude of Philip Larkin is highly responsible for the misinterpretation of his works. The poem “Wedding-Winds” and “Going” are the best examples of his positivity. The poem “Going” primarily deals with death, and then it describes the social problems and inclination of people towards sexual relationships. He describes the overall scenario of his age. He does put these things into the mind of readers but put question marks at the end and let the readers decide whether to take it positive or negative.
Similarly, in the poem “Wedding-Winds,” Larkin depicts unique happiness on a wedding night. The happiness of a newly-married lady suggests hope; not it depends whether the hope is worthy or not. Thus it becomes evident that Larkin’s poetry has hope as well as positivity. The positivity we blended with negativity and negativity dominates this positivity, due to which a more negative view of Larkin’s poetry is observed by most of the readers.
Realism in Philip Larkin’s Works
The poetry of the Romantic Movement is full of dreams, ideals, and escapism from the harsh realities of life, whereas the poetry of the realist movement is pragmatic and is based on the harsh realities of life, thus facing it. The Romantics describe their pains and miseries in poetry and other works. However, they underestimate these pains. The fantasy the ideal world and seek refuge than finding solutions for their problems. The only way to deal with the problems of real-life for romantics is to escape from it in the world of dreams. On the other hand, the Realism Movement and its followers deal with real-life issues and provide solutions to these problems rather than to escape. Realist poets portray life the way it is. These writers and poets show the real notion of life.
Phillip Larkin is one of the finest realist poets and writers. Larkin’s poem is famous for its illustration of realist imagery. He is also called the poet of movement. The poetry of these poets is based upon reality. Dread, fear, isolations, death, and religion are some of his famous themes. He had never written any poem that is based on an idea or utopian world. His poetry mainly relies on the real world. As mentioned before, his poetic world is ordinary with ordinary commonplace people. In his poetry, his subject of focus is not a single person or any concept; he writes and talks about every living person of the modern world. Furthermore, his world of poetry is full of problems as he does not idealize it. Almost every poem is dealing with the theme of death. There are lots of examples in the poetry of Larkin that show that Larkin’s poetry was realistic.
Philip Larkin’s poem “Ambulances” is one of the most important poems that show the realist world. Larkin paints the faces of people with the fear of death. Larkin, in his poem, does not idealize death, nor he escapes from reality but creates true pictures. In the poem, most of the objects are related to death. On the faces of children and women, fear is clearly observed. The objects in the poem, such as roads, ambulances, women, stretchers, children, and every other thing, are realistic. Social realism is shown in the poem. Larkin does not employ any supernatural element in his poem. Moreover, he does not give the ideas that the world could have been a better place. He just put it forward before the readers the way it is. He illustrated fear, psychological conditions, and tension in the eyes of people when they see the ambulance.
Themes in Philip Larkin’s Works
The subject matter of any art represents the experience, knowledge, and intentions of the artists. The theme is very significant in every field of art, be it poetry, drama, novel, or painting. Some ports have limited works but a large collection of themes; whereas, other poets have a large collection of works with limited themes. Philip Larkin belongs to the second category of the writers. Because of the limitedness of his themes, he is often criticized. Though he has written limited works, the way he represents things in his poem is above board. The subject matter of his poetry is limited, the way he presents these themes shows his mastery, and that is why he is known to be one of the best poets.
The common themes of his poetry and other fiction works are death, time, chance, change, choices, mystery, disillusionment, disappointment, desire, and inexplicableness. In addition to these themes, critics have also identified some other prominent themes; these are a failure, sadness, isolation from the environment, the universality of human miseries, and struggles of ordinary people.
Philip Larkin may have a limited collection of themes; his approach in the poetry is universal. Every theme of his poetry is distinctive and, at the same time, recognizable. The poetry of Philip Larkin proved that literature is universal. Furthermore, though the themes of every poem are common, the style of every poem is totally different. Larkin was immensely gifted with the skill to dramatize his poetry. Several poems of Philip Larkin are also based on a dramatic monologue. In every age, the themes and subject matter discussed by Phillip Larkin is appreciated not only by the readers of his own age but also by the readers of the 21st century. The collection of themes he has in his poetry and other works is sufficient to illustrate his knowledge and experience.
