Philip Larkin Collected Poems

by Philip Larkin

Genres: Poetry

Paperback

Published August 6, 2001

About the author

Philip Arthur Larkin, CH, CBE, FRSL, was an English poet, novelist and jazz critic. He spent his working life as a university librarian and was offered the Poet Laureateship following the death of John Betjeman, but declined the post. Larkin is commonly regarded as one of the greatest English poets of the latter half of the twentieth century. He first came to prominence with the release of his third collection The Less Deceived in 1955. The Whitsun Weddings and High Windows followed in 1964 and 1974. In 2003 Larkin was chosen as "the nation's best-loved poet" in a survey by the Poetry Book Society, and in 2008 The Times named Larkin as the greatest post-war writer.

Larkin was born in city of Coventry, England, the only son and younger child of Sydney Larkin (1884–1948), city treasurer of Coventry, who came from Lichfield, and his wife, Eva Emily Day (1886–1977), of Epping. From 1930 to 1940 he was educated at King Henry VIII School in Coventry, and in October 1940, in the midst of the Second World War, went up to St John's College, Oxford, to read English language and literature. Having been rejected for military service because of his poor eyesight, Larkin was able, unlike many of his contemporaries, to follow the traditional full-length degree course, taking a first-class degree in 1943. Whilst at Oxford he met Kingsley Amis, who would become a lifelong friend and frequent correspondent. Shortly after graduating he was appointed municipal librarian at Wellington, Shropshire. In 1946, he became assistant librarian at University College, Leicester and in 1955 sub-librarian at Queen's University, Belfast. In March 1955, Larkin was appointed librarian at The University of Hull, a position he retained until his death.

Reviews

[Eric Phetteplace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Morose formal poems. Larkin uses rhyme about as well as any poet. "This Be The Verse" is one of my favorite poems of all time and "Aubade" is also amazing. His subject matters are middle class, lots and lots of dreading death, it grows wearisome. This collection has all his poems but made the bizarre editorial choice to present them chronologically yet with some arbitrary set of "early poems" tacked on the end. I would've far preferred a format that presents the poems from his books in their publication order. That order is listed in one of the many (useful) indices, but I can't imagine turning the book into Hopscotch to follow it. Anyways, it's nice to have a collection that includes all his famous poems.