Philip Larkin: The Poet's Plight

by James Booth

James Booth reads Philip Larkin's mature poetry in terms of his ambiguous self-image as lonely, anti-social outsider, plighted to his art, and as nine-to-five librarian, sharing the common plight of humanity. Booth's focus is on Larkin's artistry with words, the 'verbal devices' through which this purest of lyric poets celebrates 'the experience. The beauty.' Featuring discussion for the first time of two recently discovered poems by Larkin, this original and exciting new study will be of interest to all students, scholars and enthusiasts of Larkin.

240 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 10, 2005

About the author

James Booth has written extensively on Philip Larkin. Booth has recently retired from the Department of English at the University of Hull, where he had been Larkin's colleague for seventeen years.

The distinction between Booth's and Andrew Motion's biographies is, in Booth's own words:

"His (Motion's) biography is a magnificent achievement, but he is not on Larkin's wavelength when it comes to humour".

However, despite praising Motion's achievement in this regard, Booth adds that:

"I think Motion took Larkin too much at his own word. When Larkin said he was a sour brute who didn't treat his mother well, he believed him. In fact, Larkin wrote two letters to his mother every week for 40-odd years."

Booth's writing is defined by his admiration for one of Britain's most beloved poets of the twentieth-century:

"I have always loved his poetry and love is the right word"