Philip Larkin
Philip Larkin
Philip Arthur Larkin CH CBE FRSLwas an English poet, novelist and librarian. His first book of poetry, The North Ship, was published in 1945, followed by two novels, Jilland A Girl in Winter, and he came to prominence in 1955 with the publication of his second collection of poems, The Less Deceived, followed by The Whitsun Weddingsand High Windows. He contributed to The Daily Telegraph as its jazz critic from 1961 to 1971, articles gathered in All What Jazz: A...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth9 August 1922
poetry emotion ends
Poetry should begin with emotion in the poet, and end with the same emotion in the reader. The poem is simply the instrument of transferance
believe guiding-principles people
As a guiding principle I believe that every poem must be its own sole freshly created universe, and therefore have no belief n 'tradition' or a common myth-kitty or casual allusions in poems to other poems or poets, which last I find unpleasantly like the talk of literary understrappers letting you see they know the right people.
depression wordsworth daffodil
Depression is to me as daffodils were to Wordsworth.
weed beach distance
Here silence stands Like heat. Here leaves unnoticed thicken, Hidden weeds flower, neglected waters quicken, Luminously-peopled air ascends; And past the poppies bluish neutral distance Ends the land suddenly beyond a beach Of shapes and shingle. Here is unfenced existence: Facing the sun, untalkative, out of reach.
mind china seeing
I wouldn't mind seeing China if I could come back the same day.
pain moon blow
The way the moon dashes through clouds that blow Loosely as cannon-smoke... Is a reminder of the strength and pain Of being young; that it can't come again, But is for others undiminished somewhere.
may happens
Most things may never happen: this one will.
dream book finals
Only in books the flat and final happens, Only in dreams we meet and interlock....
being-different different originality
Originality is being different from oneself, not others.
mad long singing
I listen to money singing, it's like looking down from long French windows at a provincial town. The slums, the canal, the churches ornate and mad in the evening sun. It is intensely sad...
thinking cushions subversive
I think we got much better poetry when it was all regarded as sinful or subversive, and you had to hide it under the cushion when somebody came in.
mean sleep loving-life
In everyone there sleeps. A sense of life lived according to love. To some it means the difference they could make. By loving others, but across most it sweeps. As all they might have done had they been loved. That nothing cures.
autumn training parting
Parting is a training streamer,Lingering like leaves in autumn...
writing novel deeper
Novels seem to me to be richer, broader, deeper, more enjoyable than poems.