How has Andrew Motion described death in Larkin’s poems?
“Death in Larkin’s view is a utterly comfortless blank”
What did Seamus Heaney say about Larkin?
He is the “poet of nothingness”
What has Bryan Appleyard had to say about Larkin?
“Advocate of misanthropy”, “a study in self pity”, focused on “littleness and triviality”
What did Helen Vendler say about Larkin?
She talks of his “devastating candour” (open honesty about life)
How has Larkin described himself?
An “Anglican Agnostic”
How is his personality often described?
Reclusive
What group was he a part of?
He was a part of the Anti-Romantic group ‘The Movement’
What was Larkin’s childhood like?
His parents had an unhappy marriage and his home atmosphere was stifling; his father was overbearing and controlling, while his mother was passive in response
He got his father (Sydney Larkin)
He was educated at home till the age of 8 (social interaction, particularly in his youth was missing)
Give two instances where Larkin cultivated and embodied a public persona, centred around solitude
He rejected the Poet-Laureate post, likely due to his disdain for publicity, crowds and attention and worked as a life-long librarian at the University of Hull
Name some typically Larkinian views and what they can be linked to.
He saw death as an inescapable, universal occurrence, which he at times seemed unsettled by and at times seemed to find comforting, at least superficially
he was preoccupied with the universal human condition
He saw nature as stagnant and persistent and was famously opposed to the romanticisation of it
His pessimism is often associated with the post-war period (1950s England), which saw a time of reconstruction, coping with tragedy and, at times, a desire to return to the past; this could be linked to Larkin’s somewhat traditional and conservative values, which happen to align with the end of the post-war boom
He saw religion as custom, social and superficial
He had an unconventional sex life and had a very negative view of commitment marriage (a method of losing freedom and identity)o
Describe post-war England and give a quote from Larkin.
A society navigating austerity and the decline of the British Empire that was so pivotal to its economy and image throughout history
He seems to try to depict life for the mundane disappointment that it is characterised by; he uses colloquial language often, employing a watched and wryly humourous perspective
“Deprivation is for me what daffodils were for Wordsworth”
