Phillip Larkin
Philip Arthur Larkin “Looking back, I find in the poems not one abandoned self but several – the ex-schoolboy, for whom Auden was the only alternative to ‘old-fashioned’ poetry; the under-graduate, whose work a friend affably characterized as ‘Dylan Thomas, but you’ve a sentimentality that’s all your own’; and the immediately post-Oxford self, isolated in Shropshire with a complete Yeats stolen from the local girls’ school. ... ” (Larkin). ... Here you can begin to see and understand Larkin’s writing style and influences as a poet and writer. Philip Arthur Larkin began his life on August 9, 1922 in a place called Coventry. He was the son of Sydney and Eva Larkin. ... Eva Larkin was a house wife while Sydney Larkin was the city treasurer from 1922 until 1944. ... (Orwin) Larkin attended the local King Henry VII School from 1930 until 1940. ... (Orwin) In November of 1943, after Larkin graduated, he moved back in with his parents, in Warwick, and failed twice to get a job with the Civil Service, then eventually was hired as the librarian of Wellington, Shropshire. ... (Orwin) Larkin would begin a new job, in 1946, as assistant librarian at The University of Leicester. ... (Literature in Today) Larkin would move on to become the librarian at the University of Hull on March 21, 1955. ... In 1965, Larkin was awarded the Queens Gold Medal for Poetry, for his collection of poems called “The Whitsun Weddings” which were published the previous year. (McHenry) In 1970 “All What Jazz” was published, a recorded diary which contained Larkin’s reviews from 1961. In 1973 Larkin edited the Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse. The following year would mark Larkin as one of the foremost poets in English Literature, as his last collection was published entitled “High Windows”. In December 1977, Larkin’s last poem was published again in “The Times Literary Supplement”. ... It was a collection of Larkin’s poems and essays. ... Larkin also served on the literature panel of arts from 1980 until 1982. ... (Orwin) Larkin received an honorary Doctorate in Literature from Oxford University, and was elected to the Board of the British Library in 1984. ... The following year Larkin was admitted to a hospital because of an illness and pain in his throat.