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
sanity affair poetry-is
Poetry is an affair of sanity, of seeing things as they are.
novelists poet ifs
If you tell a novelist, 'Life's not like that', he has to do something about it. The poet simply replies, 'No, but I am.'
writing trying poetry-is
It is fatal to decide, intellectually, what good poetry is because you are then in honour bound to try to write it, instead of the poems that only you can write.
past poetry criticism
One of the great criticisms of poets of the past is that they said one thing and did another.
people poetry about-yourself
Novels are about other people and poems are about yourself
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
poetry wordsworth deprivation
Deprivation is for me what daffodils were for Wordsworth.
beginning classic far formula
Far too many relied on the classic formula of a beginning, a muddle, and an end
late nineteen rather sexual
Sexual intercourse beganin nineteen sixty-three(Which was rather late for me)between the end of the Chatterley banand the Beatles' first LP.
squat toad work
Why should I let the toad work / Squat on my life?
dream luck pass wake
I dream about that sometimes-and wake up screaming. With any luck they'll pass me over.
reading giving thrill
Give me a thrill, says the reader, Give me a kick; I don't care how you succeed, or What subject you pick.
drinking giving musical
The chromatic scale is what you use to give the effect of drinking a quinine martini and having an enema simultaneously.
sex mean moments
Sex means nothing--just the moment of ecstasy, that flares and dies in minutes.