Philip Larkin Also by James Booth

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NEW LARKINS FOR OLD: Critical Essays (ed.) PHILIP LARKIN: Writer SYLLOGE OF COINS OF THE BRITISH ISLES 48: Northern Museums TROUBLE AT WILLOW GABLES AND OTHER FICTIONS by Philip Larkin (ed.) WRITERS AND POLITICS IN NIGERIA Philip Larkin The Poet’s Plight by

James Booth © James Booth 2005 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2005 978-1-4039-1834-5 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his rights to be identiﬁed as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2005 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-51417-5 ISBN 978-0-230-59582-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230595828

This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Booth, James, 1945– Philip Larkin : the poet’s plight / by James Booth. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Larkin, Philip–Criticism and interpretation. I. Title. PR6023.A66Z55 2005 821′.914–dc22 2005043194

10987654321 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 Contents

Acknowledgements vii Abbreviations ix 1 The Poet’s Plight 1 The delight of poetry 4 Idiolect 6 Form and genre 11 Oeuvre 16 2 Poetry as a Living 21 Professing poetry 21 Librarian-Poet 33 Money 43 3 Loves and Muses I 47 Life into art 47 ‘Your mum’ 50 The broken engagement 56 Flirtation 66 An affair 74 4 Loves and Muses II 79 ‘My wife’ 79 The long courtship 88 A late ﬂing 103

5 Poetic Histories 112 Time and history 112 Distances 118 ‘The Movement’ 122 Dates 129 Politics 135 Place and nation 137 6 Living Rooms 144 Metaphor 144 Rooms 151 Parlour and attic 153

v vi Contents

Home 156 Travelling coincidence 162 Death’s waiting-room 165 7 Empty Gestures 172 Larkin as elegist 172 The elegiac 176 Memento mori 178 Orpheus and Pan 185 Metaphor in extremis 188 Self-elegy 192 Last words 200 Appendix: ‘Be my Valentine this Monday’ and ‘We met at the end of the party’ 202 Notes 204 Bibliography 217 Index 223 Acknowledgements

My thanks are due to Angela Leighton (Hull), ever my ﬁrst and best reader. Suzanne Uniacke (Hull) also provided many exact insights. Douglas Dunn (St Andrews) and Janice Rossen read the typescript and made useful suggestions. I am also grateful to Betty Mackereth, Winifred Dawson, Jean Hartley, Father Anthony Storey, the late Maeve Brennan, and the late Monica Jones, for generously sharing with me their insights into the Larkin they knew. Larkin’s literary executors, Andrew Motion and Anthony Thwaite have been constant in their encouragement and Jeremy Crow of the Society of Authors has been helpful at every stage. My thanks are due also to Judy Burg (Hull University Archivist) and the staff of the Brynmor Jones Library, Hull. Numerous other friends and colleagues have helped with speciﬁc points: Jonathan Sawday (Strathclyde), Antony Rowland (Salford), Diana, Duchess of Hamilton, Edna Longley (Queen’s University, Belfast), John Carey (Merton, Oxford), Judith Priestman (Bodleian Library), Martine Semblat (Dijon), Danielle Pinkstein (Paris X), Elena Miraglia (Rome), Raphaël Ingelbien (Leuven), István Rácz (Debrecen), Stephen Regan (Durham), Stephen Cooper, Philip Weaver, Linda Hart, and my colleagues at the University of Hull, particularly Graham Chesters, Rowlie Wymer, Valerie Sanders, John Hoyles, John Osborne, Jane Thomas and John Howarth. My fellow members on the Committee of the Philip Larkin Society have been most supportive, in particular Don Lee, Edwin Dawes, Carole Collinson, Jim Orwin, Belinda Hakes and Paul Walker. I must also thank the Arts and Humanities Research Board for a Research Leave Award which made the completion of this book possible. The author and publishers acknowledge the following permissions to reprint copyright material: Previously unpublished material by Philip Larkin: Copyright © 2005 The Estate of Philip Larkin. By permission of the Society of Authors as the literary representative of the Estate of Philip Larkin. Quotations from ‘Lines on a Young Lady’s Photograph Album’, ‘Wedding-Wind’, ‘Places’, ‘Loved Ones’, ‘Dry-Point’, ‘Next, Please’, ‘Going’, ‘Wants’, ‘Maiden Name’, ‘Whatever Happened?’ ‘No Road’,

vii viii Acknowledgements

‘Church Going’, ‘Toads’, ‘Poetry of Departures’, ‘Spring’, ‘Deceptions’, ‘I Remember, I Remember’, ‘Absences’, ‘Latest Face’, ‘If, My Darling’ and ‘At Grass’ by Philip Larkin are reprinted from The Less Deceived by permission of the Marvell Press, England and Australia. Faber and Faber Limited and Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Inc.: Excerpts from Collected Poems by Philip Larkin. Copyright © 1988, 1989 the Estate of Philip Larkin. Excerpts from Selected Letters of Philip Larkin 1940–1985, introduction by Anthony Thwaite. Copyright © 1992 The Estate of Philip Larkin. Introduction copyright © 1992 by Anthony Thwaite. Excerpts from Required Writing by Philip Larkin. Copyright © 1983 The Estate of Philip Larkin. Faber and Faber Limited: Excerpts from Further Requirements by Philip Larkin. Copyright © 2001, 2002 The Estate of Philip Larkin. Introduction and editorial matter copyright © Anthony Thwaite 2001. Excerpts from Trouble at Willow Gables and Other Fictions by Philip Larkin. Copyright © 2002 The Estate of Philip Larkin. Introduction and editorial matter copyright © James Booth 2002. Abbreviations

FR Philip Larkin, Further Requirements: Interviews, Broadcasts, Statements and Book Reviews 1952–1985, ed Anthony Thwaite (London: Faber and Faber, pbk edn with two additional chapters, 2002). Motion Andrew Motion, Philip Larkin: A Writer’s Life (London: Faber and Faber, 1993). RW Philip Larkin, Required Writing: Miscellaneous Pieces 1955–1982 (London: Faber, 1983). SL Philip Larkin, Selected Letters, ed Anthony Thwaite (London: Faber, 1992).

NOTE: Larkin’s poems are cited from the 1988 Collected Poems, ed. Anthony Thwaite (London: Marvell Press/Faber and Faber, revised 1990). This volume is currently out of print, and the available 2003 Collected Poems (London: Marvell Press/Faber and Faber) omits a num- ber of the poems which I discuss. In order to avoid confusion between the two volumes page references to Larkin’s poems have been omitted throughout.