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
iceland hang-over ifs
Depression hangs over me as if I were Iceland.
ideas feelings desire
The poetic impulse is distinct from ideas about things or feelings about things, though it may use these. It's more like a desire to separate a piece of one's experience & set it up on its own, an isolated object never to trouble you again, at least not for a bit. In the absence of this impulse nothing stirs.
feels incompetent new-places
To start at a new place is always to feel incompetent & unwanted
different
Death is no different whined at than withstood.
be-kind should be-careful
We should be careful / Of each other, we should be kind / While there is still time.
knives mind drawers
All the unhurried day / Your mind lay open like a drawer of knives,
night drunk half
I work all day, and get half-drunk at night,
meals eating good-meals
A good meal can somewhat repair / The eatings of slight love
boredom firsts life-is
Life is first boredom, then fear,
photography art faithful
But O, Photography! as no art is, Faithful and disappointing!
work benefits way
The only way to eliminate unemployment is to eliminate unemployment benefits.
drinking giving musical
The chromatic scale is what you use to give the effect of drinking a quinine martini and having an enema simultaneously.
sanity affair poetry-is
Poetry is an affair of sanity, of seeing things as they are.
tree said leafs
The trees are coming into leaf Like something almost being said;