Philip Larkin
Philip Larkin: Context (AO3)
On Larkin, himself
·
Larkin was never married; however,
throughout his life, he had several relationships with women (even married
ones!).
·
He openly named Thomas Hardy as
one of his literary influence, and attempted to disassociate himself with
Modernists such as Elliot, Pound etc.
·
Due to his personal views of distaste towards fame,
Larkin avoided a public literary life.
·
Throughout his life, he only worked as a librarian
(after graduating with a 1st from Oxford) at university libraries – Hull,
Queen’s Belfast…
·
He was a fan of Jazz, and later on in
his career, in 1961, he became a jazz critic for the Daily Telegraph.
·
“casual,
habitual racist, and an easy misogynist” – Lisa Jardine, a feminist critic.
·
“the worst that anyone has discovered about Larkin
are some crass letters and a taste for porn softer than what passes for
mainstream entertainment” – John Osborne
·
“the saddest heart in the post-war supermarket” –
Eric Homberger
·
“He was condemned as a misogynist and racist, but
Philip Larkin’s poetry reveals a world illuminated by unexpected lights.” –
Andrew Motion
The Movement
·
Writers in “The Movement” group can be identified
by their English character, often carrying an empirical
tone, as poets from other regions of the UK were not actively
involved. Although considered a literary group, members of The Movement saw
themselves more as an actual movement, with each writer sharing a common
purpose.
·
Their intention was to redirect the course of
English poetry away from the neo-Romantic Symbolist and Imagistic poetry of
William Butler Yeats and Dylan Thomas.
·
The Movement poets were considered anti-romantic,
but Larkin and Hughes featured romantic elements. Good poetry, to
The Movement group, meant simple, sensuous content and traditional,
conventional and dignified form.
·
The Movement’s importance is its worldview that
took into account Britain’s reduced dominance in world politics as the
British Empire was collapsing. Thus, through the medium of poetry, the group
attempted to display the value of British poetry over the new Modernist
movement.
·
The Movement sparked the divisions among different
types of British poetry. Their poems were nostalgic for the
earlier Britain and filled with pastoral images of the
decaying way of life as Britain moved farther from the rural and more
towards the urban.
·
Larkin described his poems as “sad-eyed
realism” and also, “clear-eyed” as his works offers
a realistic depiction of life. Through his exploration of modern
attitudes to work, leisure, love and death, he was able to do this.
·
Across his works in general, he considers the predicament
of human life, disappointment and disillusionment these are recurring motifs in
his agnostic and philosophical explorations.
Historical
·
This period of reconstruction in
a post-war England heavily influence Larkin’s work.
·
Something which personally affected Larkin was
conscription. He was excluded from conscription over medical issues (poor
eye-site) and allowed to continue his full course at University.
·
A considerable number of the population had lost
their faith in God, following the events of the war, and Larkin’s personal
agnostic views are mirrored in his poems.
·
The death of the British Empire saw
the beginning of the new Welfare State. The change from a glorious
past of an Empire was felt by many as a lost glory because the
Welfare State was austere and mediocre with its
domestic presence.
·
The Welfare State, which was so hardly fought for
during the war itself, was never fully implemented and constant disagreements
over funding and diverted taxation funds did not allow Bevan to implement all
of Beveridge’s insistences and as such, the Welfare State was never as
influential as it should have been and the British public knew it.
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