English Poets - Philip Larkin

Philip Larkin:

Philip Larkin is one of those poets that one can easily understand – or atleast one thinks one can easily understand, without making an especial effort to see any deeper meaning in his works - and I think perhaps that's the reason the poor fellow gets maligned more than usual. You read his poems and they offer no refuge from the very ordinary starkness of life that you thought you could escape for a while in literature. No, far from it, Larkin's 'Movement' poetry in fact makes you confront your mundane demons head-on and without any illusions intact.

This is what Alan Bennett wrote about him as tribute on his sixtieth birthday - "Apparently he is sixty, but when was he anything else? He has made a habit of being sixty; he has made a profession of it. Like Lady Dumbleton he has been sixty for the last twenty-five years. On his own admission there never was a boy Larkin, no young lad Philip, let alone Phil, never."

With tributes like these, one shirks at the idea of repeating the detractions.

Early Years:

Born on 9 August 1922 in Coventry, Philip Larkin had as normal an English childhood as is normally possible. He was the younger of two siblings – his sister Kitty was ten years older – and his parents, Sydney and Eva Larkin, seem to have been nice, middle-class people with no more than the usual amount of child-rearing angst. His father, Sydney Larkin, was Coventry's City Corporation Treasurer and a highly cultured man who appears to have had an equal measure of interest in American Jazz Music and Adolf Hitler. Philip Larkin imbibed the fascination for Jazz and also, it is rumored, for the Fuhrer as well. But not, as he himself made clear in later years, any abiding fondness or loyalty for the even keel of his childhood or for his parents and sister. Most of us would suffice with, "Well, nothing very exciting happened to me when I was growing up" - Philip tried to dress up the ordinary by describing his early life in a poem as 'A forgotten boredom'. But no doubt he knew more about his family dynamics than all the biographers in the world.

A shy, solitary fellow, with a stammer that he was never able to entirely conquer, Philip Larkin did not exactly enjoy his school years at the King Henry VIII Grammar School in Coventry. It was here, though, that his writing talent surfaced. In his last year, he co-edited and wrote for the school paper, 'The Coventrian', and around the same time had his first publishable poem 'Ultimatum' published in a national weekly 'The Listener. It was 1940 and, with the Second World War raging, all young men of Philip's age were expected to enlist and fight for their country. However, his bad eye-sight exempted him from the war-front and he was able to go on to study English at St. John's College, Oxford.

It was at Oxford that he really blossomed, both as a writer and a social personality. He had three poems published in 'Oxford Poetry' and made friends with, amongst others, aspiring literary figures like Kingsley Amis, John Wain, Bruce Montgomery, and Alan Ross. Kingsley Amis, who probably had the most influence over him in the development of his writing, was to remain a life-long friend and correspondent. With these friends, Philip Larkin was able to overcome his basic shyness and stammer, and reveal himself to be a witty and sharply funny individual.

Career:

After graduating with a First Class Honors Degree in 1943, Philip found himself somewhat at a loose end. The Army didn't want him and he himself had been too busy with literary pursuits so far to have given much thought to anything as mundane as considering career options.

His parents were kind enough to put up with their educated, unemployed son, but the son was determined not to extend his stay in the fount of forgotten boredom. He send out applications to practically every available job, and soon landed work as Librarian of the Wellington Public Library in Shropshire. It turned out to be a good professional choice for him – he was surrounded by books, the atmosphere was tranquil, and he had time to continue with his own writing. He remained in Shropshire for three years, and then moved, in 1946, to work as an Assistant Librarian at the University College of Leicester Library. By this time he'd had some of his poems published in the 'Poetry from Oxford in Wartime' anthology, had them republished in his own volume of poetry 'The North Ship', and soon had two novels 'Jill' and 'A Girl in Winter' published as well. A third novel was abandoned mid-way – the success of Kingsley Amis's novel 'Lucky Jim' seems to have wrecked his confidence in his own writing abilities and he turned thereafter to poetry.

In 1950, Philip Larkin moved to Belfast to take up post at the Queen's University Library, and five years later, in 1955, he moved to his final post at the Brynmor Jones library at the University of Hull.

It was while in Belfast that he wrote the poems that would be eventually collected in the volume 'The Less Deceived' in 1955. Two other volumes, 'The Whitsun Weddings' and 'High Windows' appeared in 1964 and 1974 respectively.

These three poetry volumes really established Philip Larkin's reputation as one of the leading English Poets of his day. For 'The Whitsun Weddings' he was given the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry.

Around this time, Larkin's intense liking for Jazz led to an assignment of writing Jazz Music reviews for the Daily Telegraph. These were afterwards published together as 'All What Jazz: a record diary'. He also wrote numerous essays that later on found publication as 'Required Writing: miscellaneous pieces 1955-1982', and maintained correspondence with many friends, which, again, was published.

The 'Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse', the volume of poetry painstakingly edited by him, appeared to critical acclaim in 1973. His 'Required Writing' was given the W. H. Smith Literary Award in 1984, and, by this time, he himself had also been the recipient of the CBE, the German Shakespeare-Pries, and the Library Association Honorary Fellowship. He would have been the British Poet Laureate too, except the media circus that went with the post didn't appeal to him.

Personal Life:

For all his public achievements, Philip Larkin insisted on remaining a very private person. This gave rise to myths in the media about solitary and reclusive quirks. This wasn't really the case. He had many close friends and he was a very efficient Librarian, a job that required him to oversee a large staff of over 100 employees and have daily contact with numerous other persons besides.

As for marriage, he was of the opinion that two could live as stupidly as one. So he never married. He was a womanizer, also something of a misogynist, certainly not an upstanding citizen in many ways, and yet the three main women in his life remained loyal to him till the end.

End:

Philip Larkin died of oesophagal cancer on 2 December 1985. He was 63. As per his wishes, his secretary and former lover burned all his personal diaries.

Quote:

"People say I'm very negative, and I suppose I am, but the impulse for producing a poem is never negative; the most negative poem in the world is a very positive thing to have done."