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
according across difference life lived loving means might sleeps
In everyone there sleeps / A sense of life lived according to love. / To some it means the difference they could make / By loving others, but across most it sweeps / As all they might have done had they been loved. / That nothing cures.
dream luck pass wake
I dream about that sometimes-and wake up screaming. With any luck they'll pass me over.
beginning classic far formula
Far too many relied on the classic formula of a beginning, a muddle, and an end
enemy dont-like-me like-me
I have no enemies. But my friends don't like me.
doctors light sky
Slowly light strengthens, and the room takes shape. It stands plain as a wardrobe, what we know, Have always known, know that we can't escape, Yet can't accept. One side will have to go. Meanwhile telephones crouch, getting ready to ring In locked-up offices, and all the uncaring Intricate rented world begins to rouse. The sky is white as clay, with no sun. Work has to be done. Postmen like doctors go from house to house.
echoes woods firsts
This is the first thing I have understood: Time is the echo of an axe within a wood.
firsts ends bans
Sexual intercourse began in 1963 ... / Between the end of the Chatterley ban/ and the Beatles first LP
time
What are days for? Days are where we live. They come, they wake us Time and time over. Theyare to be happy in: Where can we live but days?
romantic death inspirational-love
What will survive of us is love.
always-trying people feels
I am always trying to 'preserve' things by getting other people to read what I have written, and feel what I felt.
pain moon blow
The way the moon dashes through clouds that blow Loosely as cannon-smoke... Is a reminder of the strength and pain Of being young; that it can't come again, But is for others undiminished somewhere.
distance white clouds
My age fallen away like white swaddling Floats in the middle distance, becomes An inhabited cloud.
party thinking years
One of the sadder things, I think, Is how our birthdays slowly sink: Presents and parties disappear, The cards grow fewer year by year, Till, when one reaches sixty-five, How many care we're still alive?
money
Clearly money has something to do with life....