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A Analytical Study of the Philip Larkin's Selected Poetries Global Journal of HUMAN SOCIAL SCIENCE Linguistics & Education Volume 12 Issue 12 Version 1.0 Year 2012 Type: Double Blind Peer Reviewed International Research Journal Publisher: Global Journals Inc. (USA) Online ISSN: 2249-460x & Print ISSN: 0975-587X A Analytical Study of the Philip Larkin’s Selected Poetries By Ruchika Scholar of CMJ University, Shillong, India Abstract - Philip Arthur Larkin was an English poet and novelist. His first book of poetry, The North Ship, was published in 1945, followed by two novels, Jill (1946) and A Girl in Winter (1947), but he came to prominence in 1955 with the publication of his second collection of poems, The Less Deceived, followed by The Whitsun Weddings (1964) and High Windows (1974). He contributed to The Daily Telegraph as its jazz critic from 1961 to 1971, articles gathered together in All What Jazz: A Record Diary 1961–71 (1985), and he edited The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse (1973). He was the recipient of many honours, including the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. He was offered, but declined, the position of poet laureate in 1984, following the death of John Betjeman. Keywords : A Girl in Winter, High Windows, Jill, The North Ship, The Whitsun, Weddings. GJHSS-E Classification: FOR Code: 160503, 160502 A Analytical Study of the Philip Larkins Selected Poetries Strictly as per the compliance and regulations of: © 2012. Ruchika. This is a research/review paper, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. A Analytical Study of the Philip Larkin’s Selected Poetries Ruchika Abstract - Philip Arthur Larkin was an English poet and Here" was written some six and a half years novelist. His first book of poetry, The North Ship, was after his move to Hull, when he had come to appreciate published in 1945, followed by two novels, Jill (1946) and A the city for its peculiarities and its remoteness. Hull's 12 0 Girl in Winter (1947), but he came to prominence in 1955 with position in East Yorkshire makes it a place that few 2 the publication of his second collection of poems, The Less people visit unless they have a particular reason to do Deceived, followed by The Whitsun Weddings (1964) and High so, as it is not on the route to anywhere else. Year Windows (1974). He contributed to The Daily Telegraph as its jazz critic from 1961 to 1971, articles gathered together in All The poem is a response to his statement in his What Jazz: A Record Diary 1961–71 (1985), and he edited The earlier poem "Places, Loved Ones" (written in 1954 7 Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse (1973). He before he left Belfast) that: "No, I have never found / The was the recipient of many honours, including the Queen's Gold place where I could say / This is proper ground / Here I Medal for Poetry. He was offered, but declined, the position of shall stay". Now, in 1961, he feels ready to say that he poet laureate in 1984, following the death of John Betjeman. has found his "Here", although his feelings towards Despite the controversy Larkin was chosen in a 2003 Poetry Belfast had changed in the interim. Book Society survey, almost two decades after his death, as "Here" was the opening poem of his 1964 Britain's best-loved poet of the previous 50 years, and in 2008 The Times named him Britain's greatest post-war writer. A collection "The Whitsun Weddings", which is largely major poet of the post-World War II period, Larkin attempted to concerned with questions of identity and belonging. By capture ordinary experience in realistic and rational terms. concentrating on how a place accords with one's Larkin's poetry both avoids romanticizing experience and personality, and becomes part of one's identity, "Here" is moves away from the abstract, experimental language of Eliot an appropriate introduction. and the modernists. Although Larkin's poetry follows the The poem comprises four eight-line stanzas cadences of everyday "plain speech," it is composed in strict with an ABBACDDC rhyme scheme. However, Larkin Volume XII Issue Version I meters and forms. It is executed in the poet's own voice, which makes considerable use of half-rhymes in this poem ) D D E D D can be self-deprecatingly humorous or cynical, thoughtful or (e.g. solitude/mud, stands/ascends) and there are ( softly humorous. To some critics, his poetry, reflective of the "rhymes" that are scarcely rhymes at all, such as ce life of a near-recluse, seems too grim, "bleak, if not black," but n dwelling/museum and trolleys/driers. The effect of this is e to Clive James, "It made misery beautiful…. the voice was ci unmistakable." to give the poem a relaxed, informal tone. Although the Keywords : A Girl in Winter, High Windows, Jill, The poem has structure it is not overplayed and one is al S ci barely aware of it as the poem proceeds. o North Ship, The Whitsun, Weddings. S "Here" is a survey of Hull and its surrounding i. Introduction countryside, viewed almost as though the poet is flying uman hilip Larkin (1922-85) was one of the most highly overhead in a helicopter, although it is clear in the regarded and respected poets of post-World War opening stanza that Larkin is describing the approach to f H Hull from the west by rail from the "rich industrial II Britain. He achieved considerable popularity al o n P shadows" of the Leeds conurbation. He uses the word r although he was never an "easy" poet, and many of his u poems offer intriguing insights to the mind of a complex "swerving" three times in this stanza to describe the train o sweeping through "fields too thin and thistled to be and flawed personality. al J called meadows" and passing the occasional "harsh- b By profession Philip Larkin was a librarian (as is lo the current reviewer) and he spent much of his career as named halt". This is an unpromising journey, from "rich" G the chief librarian at the Brynmor Jones Library of the to "thin", and in contradiction to the flow of "traffic all University of Hull. Larkin moved to Hull from Belfast in night north" (the rail line crosses the A1 London to 1955 and he spent the rest of his life there. He did not Edinburgh road shortly after leaving Leeds). The poet is find Hull to be an easy city to get to like, and it was travelling into an unknown country, marked by "solitude". some years before he felt himself to be well settled However, the second stanza expresses the there. His poem” "surprise of a large town" which the train journey culminates in. Hull is off the beaten track as far as major Author : Scholar of CMJ University, Shillong, Meghalya, India. UK cities are concerned, and it is indeed something of a E-mails : [email protected], surprise to find here a bustling port with its "domes and [email protected] statues, spires and cranes". Hull is not a particularly © 2012 Global Journals Inc. (US) A Analytical Study of the Philip Larkin’s Selected Poetries beautiful city (although it has been considerably However, there is a final unanswered question "cleaned up" in the 50 years since Larkin wrote this posed by this poem. If Larkin is seeking a "Here" where poem) and the poet does not spend long in trying to he truly himself, has he achieved that end when he describe it. admits that such a place is "out of reach", and is Instead, he is more interested in the crowds of therefore not "here" but "there"? That is the question of working-class people, the "residents from raw estates", identity that Larkin continued to address in other poems who "push through plate-glass swing doors to their in "The Whitsun Weddings" and elsewhere. desires", which Larkin lists with enthusiasm as "cheap suits, red kitchen-ware, sharp shoes, iced lollies, / ii. Critical Reception Electric mixers, toasters, washers, driers". There is no Larkin has been viewed largely as a gloomy snobbery on Larkin's part, merely a recognition that the poet, misanthropic, and pessimistic about human 12 people of this city are "a cut-price crowd, urban yet 20 endeavors. Although the author of only four volumes of simple" whose concerns are the everyday ones of r verse, these, along with his two novels, continue to be ea getting and spending. reprinted, and Larkin finds British rivals only in Ted Y Larkin again stresses the isolated position of Hughes and Dylan Thomas. His accessible style, which 82 Hull when he describes the people as "dwelling / Where often uses concrete images to move to symbolic only salesmen and relations come / Within a terminate celebration and expression of freedom, as well as the and fishy-smelling / Pastoral … ". first-person speaker of many of his poems, have won He mentions one or two features that might set him his following over the years. He is the "urban Hull apart from other cities, namely "the slave museum" modern man, the insular Englishman," as Seamus (Hull was the home town of William Wilberforce, the 19th Heaney remarked in Critical Inquiry, whose "tones are century anti-slavery campaigner) and its consulates, mannerly but not exquisite, well-bred but not mealy- which would be there because Hull is a port of entry for mouthed.
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