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Philip Larkin.P65 LITSCAN General Editor Kalpana Rajaram Philip Larkin A Critical Review of Selected Poems by B.G. Tandon Former Professor and Head School of Studies in English Vikram University Ujjain (MP) SPECTRUM BOOKS PVT. LTD. A1 291, Ist Floor, Janakpuri, New Delhi-110 058 Preface A typical Larkin poem is a dubious blend of the simple and the difficult. At one place it is clear as pebbles in distilled water, and at the other, it is teasingly difficult, and yields meaning after a long seize. Hence, a judicious editing of his poems is an exigency of criticism. The pages that follow annotate twenty-five of his most anthologised and prescribed poems. The annotation is done in three steps— paraphrase, explication of the expressions that an average student finds difficult, and critical evaluation. This is preceded by a copious introduction on Larkin’s poetry, both in terms of his affiliations with the Movementeers and of his individual identities. The assessment fuses my own perception of Larkin’s poetry with the durable insights of the critics, both early and later. B.G. Tandon 2006 2 A Note from the General Editor Philip Larkin (1922-1985) was an important poet of the post-War decades, specially the 1950s and 1960s, and a significant member of the group of writers known as ‘the Movement’. This group of writers was critical of the cultural pretensions of Bloomsbury and what it perceived as the ‘elitism’ of a large part of Modernist writing. Larkin may not have been an “angry young man” typical of the late 1950s, but his work does show a consciously “provocative frankness”. He does not sentimentalise human experience; he sees the sham and the lack of true joy in the society around him. In this critical evaluation, Dr B.G. Tandon has reviewed the poetry of Philip Larkin from the perspectives of its content and style in the Introduction, and then gone on to discuss each of the twenty-five poems selected for this critical evaluation in the second section. In the last section, Dr Tandon has provided the annotations for each of these poems. It is unfortunate that Dr Tandon did not live to see the publication of his perceptive and painstaking work on Larkin. We take this opportunity to dedicate this volume to his memory. Suggestions to improve the work in any way will be welcome. Kalpana Rajaram New Delhi January 2006 3 Contents C O N T E N T S Preface (v) A Note from the General Editor (vii) Introduction to Philip Larkin and his Poetry Life 3 Works 6 The Movement 9 The Poet 14 Review of Larkin Criticism 14 Larkin’s Poetry: Content and Form 20 Larkin’s Poetry: Main Features in Brief 36 References 39 Critical Evaluation of Selected Poems Going 45 Wedding-Wind 47 At Grass 50 Deceptions 54 If, My Darling 58 Wants 62 Next, Please 65 Poetry of Departures 68 Toads 71 Church Going 74 Mr Bleaney 79 An Arundel Tomb 83 The Whitsun Weddings 87 MCMXIV 92 4 Contents Ambulances 96 Here 99 Essential Beauty 103 Toads Revisited 107 Dockery and Son 110 High Windows 115 Annus Mirabilis 118 Homage to a Government 122 The Explosion 125 Dublinesque 129 The Building 132 Annotations Going 139 Wedding-Wind 139 At Grass 140 Deceptions 142 If, My Darling 143 Wants 145 Next, Please 146 Poetry of Departures 147 Toads 148 Church Going 150 Mr Bleaney 153 An Arundel Tomb 155 The Whitsun Weddings 157 MCMXIV 161 Ambulances 163 Here 164 Essential Beauty 167 Toads Revisited 169 Dockery and Son 171 5 Contents High Windows 173 Annus Mirabilis 174 Homage to a Government 176 The Explosion 176 Dublinesque 178 The Building 178 Further Reading 183 6.
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