Philip Larkin Critics

Front 1

Martin Amis

Back 1

"Larkin had no emotions, no vital essences worth looking back on, but, siphoned all his energy, and all his love, out of the life and into the work"

Front 2

James Booth - The Independent

Back 2

"There is indeed a paradoxical relationship between Larkin the poet, and Larkin the man."

Front 3

Ricarhd Palmer

Back 3

"[on Toads Revisited] the poem ends, almost predictably, as a quiet celebration of work and purposefulness "

Front 4

Leo Cox

Back 4

"Many have seen Larkin as the 'archetypal English Poet' because for ll his criticism and cynicism, he had a great love for his country and his culture"

Front 5

Leo Cox

Back 5

"birth, death, funerals, love, community and marriage are all degraded at Larkin's hands"

Front 6

Andrew Swarbrick

Back 6

"poems such as 'Ambulances' and 'An Arundel Tomb' also want to pay homage to human qualities of sympathy and persistence which resist the passage of time"

Front 7

Philip Larkin

Back 7

"[with reference to 'Sunny Prestatyn] that is exactly the reaction I want to prevoke, shock, outrage at the defacement of the poster and for what the girl stood for."

Front 8

Richard Palmer

Back 8

"It is a poet afraid of madness who envies 'Bleany' his insufferable sane routine"

Front 9

Andrew Motion

Back 9

"Death, in Larkin's view, is an utterly comfort less blank. The frequency and forceful Ness with which he envisages its approach go a long way towards explaining why he is so often regarded as an unreservedly pessimistic poet"

Front 10

Andrew Swarbrick

Back 10

"Larkin's interest in images is drawn from advertising because they represent society's collective desires and aspirations"

Front 11

Andrew Motion

Back 11

"he is much less interested in nature for its own sake than for the opportunities it offers to moralise about human condition"

Front 12

Andrew Motion

Back 12

"none of Larkin's poems registers the achievement of complete calm success in love"

Front 13

Janice Rossen

Back 13

"Larkin's fury against women is not so much a declared stage of seige against them personally as it is an eternal battle raging within himself"

Front 14

Christopher Ricks

Back 14

"[he writes] like something almost being sad...it is a study of self-pity"

Front 15

Bryan Appleyard

Back 15

"he is an advocate of misanthropy and pessimism"

Front 16

Peter Levi

Back 16

"Larkin's poems are more alive in a cogitatory state than a sophisticated physical one"

Front 17

Bryan Appleyard

Back 17

"Larkin is a hopeless and inflexible pessimist"

Front 18

Andrew Motion

Back 18

"tensions...between an undecided pessimism and a wishful-thinking optimism"

Front 19

Andrew Motion

Back 19

"profound and unforgettable things to say about common experience."

Front 20

Peter King

Back 20

"strength of careful social observation"

Front 21

Andrew Swarbrick

Back 21

"Larkin's poetry is the persuit of difference"

Front 22

James Navemore

Back 22

"despite a 'certain coldness', Larkin is able to 'recover an honest sense of joy and beauty'"

Front 23

John Betjeman

Back 23

'he is "tenderly observant"