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From:The English Review (Vol. 10, Issue 1)Jim McCombe, a sixth-form student, explores Philip Larkin's curiously optimistic poem about a mining disaster The Explosion is one of the many poems by Larkin which deals with the subject of human mortality. It does...
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From:Twentieth Century Literature (Vol. 54, Issue 4) Peer-ReviewedUnless we are dealing with embedded quotations of unquestionable provenance, there is a sense in which literary allusions are illusions, since, like that most celebrated of illusions, the rainbow, a good few of them are...
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From:New England Review (Vol. 35, Issue 1) Peer-ReviewedIT'S BEFORE MIDNIGHT AND, FOR NEARLY TEN MINUTES NOW, THE DOG HAS been sitting in the middle of the living room floor. He has been watching me, sometimes shifting from one front paw to the other. This can mean only one...
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From:Papers on Language & Literature (Vol. 43, Issue 2) Peer-ReviewedTo consider the significance of place in Philip Larkin's oeuvre may seem a foredoomed endeavor. For one whose particularity in rendering the quotidian is almost a signature trait, it is revealing that of the 172 poems...
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From: Eight Contemporary Poets[In the essay below, Bedient praises Larkin's poetic voice, claiming “[h]is achievement has been the creation of imaginative bareness, a penetrating confession of poverty.”] English poetry has never been so...
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From:Reference Guide to English Literature (2nd ed.)As the title poem of the book which many regard as Philip Larkin's best, ``The Whitsun Weddings'' is one of that handful of spacious, ambitious pieces—along with such poems as ``Church Going,'' ``The Building,'' or...
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From: The Dalhousie ReviewThe question of the two profiles in Larkin's poetry—the implacable skeptic and the visionary manqué—is best considered in connection with those poems which explore the meaning of death. There emerges gradually a...
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From: Boston Review[In the following excerpt, Burt analyzes Larkin's use of profanity in his poems, specifically in “High Windows.”] When Philip Larkin published High Windows in 1974, what everyone noticed, besides its general...
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From: The New CriterionOf the many articles that have appeared in the newspapers on the sad occasion of Philip Larkin's death, at sixty-three, none dealt adequately with his poetry. The writers of these articles expressed admiration for...
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From: Larkin with Poetry: English Association Conference Papers[(essay date 1997) In the following essay, Booth summarizes the reaction to Larkin’s letters, with an emphasis on the political dimension and perceptions of Larkin’s “Englishness.” Booth analyzes Larkin’s poem “Livings...
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From: Carpenters of Light: Some Contemporary English Poets[(essay date 1979) In the following excerpt, Powell discusses the plot, phrasing, and rhythms of “The Whitsun Weddings” and disputes negative commentaries on a work that he believes combines realism with hints of...
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From: Grand Street[(essay date 1990) In the following essay, Pollitt discusses the relationship between Larkin’s life and his poetry, focusing on the appeal of his gloominess and examining his ability to transcend darkness “by...
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From: The Survival of Poetry: A Contemporary Survey[In the following essay, Thwaite weaves Larkin's own commentary on his work into a chronological overview of his corpus.] There is a certain irony about sitting down to write a critical paper on the poetry of Philip...
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From:Poetry for Students (Vol. 12. )Perhaps the most puzzling line in "An Arundel Tomb" is the one that begins the third stanza: "They would not think to lie so long." On the surface, it seems to have a simple meaning: the earl and the countess did not...
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From:Reference Guide to English Literature (2nd ed.)At the time of his death in 1985 Philip Larkin was the most admired poet of his generation in England, whose work was enjoyed by ordinary readers and studied and explicated by critics and academics. His reputation did...
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From: The Iowa Review[Here, Brown focuses on Larkin's “absences,” not solely as symbols from nature, but as referents for his audience.] Readers of Philip Larkin's poetry keep writing about it, even though they recognize how simple and...
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From: The Motive for Metaphor: Essays on Modern Poetry[(essay date 1983) In the following essay, Blessington examines technical and thematic aspects of several Larkin poems, focusing on the “strong conflicts that lie unresolved but dramatized beneath the smooth veneer.”...
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From: An Uncommon Poet for the Common Man: A Study of Philip Larkin's Poetry[Below, Kuby examines Larkin's place among British poets, specifically his relationship to the modernist school.] Facets of Larkin's style point to several progenitors. In many ways his differences from the modern...
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From:Poetry for Students (Vol. 12. )Larkin's "An Arundel Tomb" is many things--a meditation on death, a tribute to the power of art, a celebration of love, an evocation of England's long traditions and history. It can also be read as a rueful expression of...
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From:Poetry for Students[Bruce Meyer is Director of the Creative Writing program at the University of Toronto. He has taught at several Canadian universities and is author of three collections of poetry, “The Open Room” (1989), “Radio Silence”...