LARKIN CONTEXT
● Born in 1922- post ww1
● Whitsun Weddings published in 1964
● Studied English at University of Oxford, graduated with a first.
● Larkin was never married; however, throughout his life, he had several relationships
with women (even married ones!).
● He openly named Thomas Hardy as one of his literary influence, and attempted to
disassociate himself with Modernists such as Elliot, Pound etc hardy (believed it was
essential to move away from the merely personal towards an intellectual statement that
poetry could make about the world.)
● Hardy Considered a Victorian realist, Hardy examines the social constraints on the
lives of those living in Victorian England, and criticises those beliefs, especially those
relating to marriage, education and religion, that limited people's lives and caused
unhappiness.
● Larkin credits Hardy for inspiring him to write with great austerity and to link
experiences and emotions with detailed settings.
● Larkin seemed to have conservative views and believed he was an outsider.
● Due to his personal views of distaste towards fame, Larkin avoided a public literary
life.
● Larki enjoyed train rides and solitude
● Throughout his life, he only worked as a librarian (after graduating with a 1st from
Oxford) at university libraries – Hull, Queen’s Belfast…
● He was a fan of Jazz, and later on in his career, in 1961, he became a jazz critic for
the Daily Telegraph.
● Larkin was a member of the RSPCA
● Larkin distrusted foreign travel and professed ignorance of foreign literature
● Wrote racist letters but then seemed to support black civil rights movement
● Larkin drove a literature movement creatively known as 'The Movement'. It was a
response to the highly introspective work of the disillusioned Modernists, and aimed
to convey the nitty-gritty of 'real' life. Because of this, much of what Larkin observed
influenced his poetry explains detachment
● The Movement: The Movement poets were considered anti-romantic, but Larkin and
Hughes featured romantic elements. To these poets, good poetry meant simple,
sensuous content and traditional, conventional and dignified form
● The poet distrusted travel abroad and professed ignorance of foreign literature,
including most modern American poetry
● Poor eyesight and stuttering plagued Larkin as a youth; he retreated into solitude,
read widely, and began to write poetry as a nightly routine.
● As time passed, Larkin's work grew darker and more preoccupied by death. His final
poem, 'Aubade' was published in 1977. After this, and his mother's death, he wrote
no more poetry.
● He died from cancer on 2nd December, 1985, at 63 years old.
