Philip Larkin: The Complete Poems

by Archie Burnett (Editor)

Paperback

Published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Cheryl]

March 2025

Much too much for me, all the commentary, inclusion of unpublished, etc. I do appreciate that his poems usually present as accessible, but then usually have depths that even a layperson like me can find on second or third read with an 'ah-ha!'

Fun and fine, even on first level, is "Toads."

Toads by Philip Larkin

Why should I let the toad work
Squat on my life?
Can't I use my wit as a pitchfork
And drive the brute off?

Six days of the week it soils
With its sickening poison -
Just for paying a few bills!
That's out of proportion.

Lots of folk live on their wits:
Lecturers, lispers,
Losels, loblolly-men, louts-
They don't end as paupers;

Lots of folk live up lanes
With fires in a bucket,
Eat windfalls and tinned sardines-
they seem to like it.

Their nippers have got bare feet,
Their unspeakable wives
Are skinny as whippets - and yet
No one actually starves.

Ah, were I courageous enough
To shout Stuff your pension!
But I know, all too well, that's the stuff
That dreams are made on:

For something sufficiently toad-like
Squats in me, too;
Its hunkers are heavy as hard luck,
And cold as snow,

And will never allow me to blarney
My way of getting
The fame and the girl and the money
All at one sitting.

I don't say, one bodies the other
One's spiritual truth;
But I do say it's hard to lose either,
When you have both.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has EVERYTHING. Poems backgrounds, variants, Larkin’s comments, buried sources, etc.

Notes:
18… There is regret, Always, there is regret.
29… Places, Loved ones .. Wiser to keep away / from thinking you still might trace / Uncalled for to this day / Your person, your place
31… Next, Please … Always too eager for the future … But we are wrong: only one ship is seeking us, a flack- / Sailed unfamiliar, towing at her back / A huge and birdless silence.
34… No Road Since we agreed to let the road between us / Fall to disuse
38… Toads … Why should I let the toad “work” / squat on my life?
51… Love Song in Age
58… Self’s the Man … He married a woman to stop her getting away / Now she’s there all day
88… This Be the Verse … your mum and dad … Get out as early as you can, / And don’t have any kids yourself.
91… Vers de Societe Funny how hard it is to be alone
92… Show Saturday … wrestling
108… Fiction and the Reading Public
112… Love … The difficult part of Love / Is being selfish enough, / Is having the blind persistence ? To upset an existence / Just for your own sake. What cheek it must take.
113… Heads in the Women’s Ward
115… Aubaude … Courage is no good: It means not scaring others.
118… The Mower … We should be careful / of each other, we should be kind / while there is time.
119… Birthday poem
306… The Dance
310 … Morning, noon & bloody night / Seven sodding days a week. / I slave at filthy work, that might / Be done by any book-drunk freak. / This goes on till I kick the bucket: / F it, F it, F it, F it

[Sheela Word · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are really wonderful. In his poems at least, Larkin shows boundless empathy and wisdom. I love them so much.