Philip Larkin
Philip Larkin (August 9, 1922 - December 2, 1985) was an English poet, novelist and jazz critic. His parents were Sydney and Eva Larkin. He was born in Coventry, UK.Larkin was educated at King Henry VIII School in Coventry and St. John's College, Oxford.
Soon after graduating from Oxford he applied for, and won, the position of Librarian at Wellington, in Shropshire, in late 1943. In 1946, Larkin became Assistant Librarian at the University College of Leicester; in March of 1955, he became Librarian at the University of Hull. He remained in this position for most of the rest of his life. Besides poems he published two novels, Jill (1946) and A Girl in Winter (1947), and several essays.
Unlike most writers, Larkin moved on from prose to poetry. His early work shows the influence of Yeats, but his later poetic identity was influenced mainly by Thomas Hardy. He is well-known for his use of slang and coarse language in his poetry, partly balanced by a similarly antique word choice. Fine use of enjambment and rhyme; his poetry is highly structured, but never rigid. Death was a recurring theme and subject of his poetry, Aubade being the best example of this.
The Less Deceived, published in 1955, marked Larkin as an up-and-coming poet. He was for a time associated with The Movement.
1964's The Whitsun Weddings confirmed his reputation. The title poem is a masterful depiction of the sights from a train one Whitsun; though this description does the poem little justice. High Windows, released in 1974, still stands as one of the greatest books of 20th century British poetry.
Larkin is largely responsible for the current status of Thomas Hardy, due to his editing of The Oxford Book of Twentieth-Century English Verse (1973).
He never married, prefering to share his life with a number of women – Monica Jones, Maeve Brennan and Betty Mackereth. Monica Jones was a fellow lecturer, Maeve Brennan was a library assistant who was also a strict Catholic, and Betty Mackereth was his secretary.
On the death of John Betjeman, Larkin was offered the post of Poet Laureate, but declined, feeling that his poetic muse had permanently deserted him. However, he remains one of Britain's most popular poets; two of his poems, This Be The Verse and An Arundel Tomb, featuring in the "Nation's Top 100 Poems" as voted for by television viewers.
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Well-known poems
Works
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