If you’ve ever experienced the uncomfortable silence that follows an elderly relative’s ridiculously non-PC comment on immigrants, homosexuals or gangsta rap take solace in the fact that Larkin’s parents were much, much worse. Larkin’s father owned a miniature statue of Hitler which he kept on the mantlepiece. At the push of the button it would perform a Nazi salute. Really.
They say that a poet’s sur- roundings influence his work. Wordsworth had the Lake Dis- trict. Larkin had Hull. Despite achieving great success with the publication of three vol- umes of poetry, Larkin spent most of his life working as the Librarian at Hull Univeristy. To be fair, the grey, shipping dock surroundings of Hull did inspire a lot of Larkin’s poems. But that just may explain why his poems can be so depressing.
Larkin, by his own admission, was not much of a looker. He went bald in his 20s and wore very, very thick spectacles. In a characteristic display of confidence he once de- scribed himself as ‘an egg sculpted in lard, wearing goggles’. Despite nature’s setbacks, Larkin had a quite a rich and mildly sordid love life, maintaining a 35 year affair with Monica Jones, an affair which continued over two long term relationships.
With the memorable opening line, ‘They fuck you up, your Mum and Dad’, This Be The Verse has long been established as Larkin most fa- mous poem. A darkly comic look at human reproduction and the inevitable failings of parents, it’s a good poem to read if you ever start feel- ing panicked about your biological clock. It’s not exactly the best repre- sentation of Larkin’s work though. The intense lyricism that appears in poems like ‘The Old Fools’ and ‘Ambulances’ is not so present here.
If This Be The Verse is Larkin’s most quoted poem, then An Arundel Tomb is definitely his most mis-quoted. If any- one tries to tell you that Larkin was actually quite a positive guy after all be- cause he wrote the words ‘What will survive of us is love’ then smack them. What Larkin actually wrote was, ‘Our almost instinct, almost true / What will survive of us is love’. That extra line makes a lot of difference. And ruins every poorly researched obiturary in the Daily Mail ever.
Philip Larkin died in 1985 at the age of 63 from cancer of the oesophagus. Now, 25 years after his death he remains one of England’s best loved poets.