A collection of poems from a "tenderly observant" poet who writes about what all of us can understand. The title poem describes the poet's journey ...
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Sep 14, 2011
This cost me a mere 50 cents!!!!
And I know it will contain an absolute wealth
of plain-speaking insight on the daily grind,
done with irony, wit and empathy.
Larkin' with Larkin!!!!
And I know it will contain an absolute wealth
of plain-speaking insight on the daily grind,
done with irony, wit and empathy.
Larkin' with Larkin!!!!
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Jan 14, 2012
Courtney
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This week I read Philip Larkin's fifth collection of poems, 'The Whitsun Weddings' (1964).
Usually when I say 'read' I mean read once, from cover to cover (apart from the books I abandon). And when I say 'read' a book of poems, usually I mean read each poem once (well- let's be honest, in an anthology, I might skim some the long ones from the 1800s) - maybe twice, maybe lingered over a few lines a few times.
Since 'reading' The Whitsun Weddings on Monday night, I've re-read More...
Usually when I say 'read' I mean read once, from cover to cover (apart from the books I abandon). And when I say 'read' a book of poems, usually I mean read each poem once (well- let's be honest, in an anthology, I might skim some the long ones from the 1800s) - maybe twice, maybe lingered over a few lines a few times.
Since 'reading' The Whitsun Weddings on Monday night, I've re-read More...
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Jan 21, 2008
Toads Revisited
Walking around in the park
Should feel better than work:
The lake, the sunshine,
The grass to lie on,
Blurred playground noises
Beyond black-stockinged nurses -
Not a bad place to be.
Yet it doesn't suit me.
Being one of the men
You meet of an afternoon:
Palsied old step-takers,
Hare-eyed clerks with the jitters,
Waxed-fleshed out-patients
Still vague from accidents,
And ch More...
Walking around in the park
Should feel better than work:
The lake, the sunshine,
The grass to lie on,
Blurred playground noises
Beyond black-stockinged nurses -
Not a bad place to be.
Yet it doesn't suit me.
Being one of the men
You meet of an afternoon:
Palsied old step-takers,
Hare-eyed clerks with the jitters,
Waxed-fleshed out-patients
Still vague from accidents,
And ch More...
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Oct 28, 2010
Jenna
rated it: 
My first impression upon beginning to delve into Larkin's oeuvre was, "This seems like the kind of poetry Charles Bukowski would have written if Bukowski had been (a) British and (b) more talented." Strange as the comparison might seem, I believe the 20th-century American poet whose public persona most closely resembles Larkin's is Bukowski: both Larkin and Bukowski self-deprecatingly portrayed themselves as rather boorish, caddish, peevish, cynical, frequently bored, unattractive, g
More...
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Nov 30, 2010
Darren
rated it:
Verse from the shining crabass of 20th Century British lit
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Jul 19, 2011
Hanna
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This was one of the books I studied for A level. Initally I found it slightly depressing and a little too pessimistic...until we began reading Slyvia Plath.
It took an essay entitled 'Making the mundane magnificent' for me to truly appreciate Larkin's wonderfully refreshing honesty. Great writers can change the way you see the world in a few hundred pages. Great poets can do this in a few hundred words. Larkin in a great poet.
'Essential Beauty' manages to transport me to More...
It took an essay entitled 'Making the mundane magnificent' for me to truly appreciate Larkin's wonderfully refreshing honesty. Great writers can change the way you see the world in a few hundred pages. Great poets can do this in a few hundred words. Larkin in a great poet.
'Essential Beauty' manages to transport me to More...
Jan 23, 2008
Robert
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Philip Larkin, The Whitsun Weddings (Faber, 1964)
Philip Larkin's fifth collection of poetry, The Whitsun Weddings, was the one that firmly established him as one of Britain's major poets. He remains today one of the best-known and most popular British neoformalists. A devotee of Yeats, Hardy, and Dylan Thomas, Larkin never wears his influences too far away from his sleeve, but don't begrudge him that; marvel, instead, that in the turbulent anything-goes sixties lived a poet, misanthrop More...
Philip Larkin's fifth collection of poetry, The Whitsun Weddings, was the one that firmly established him as one of Britain's major poets. He remains today one of the best-known and most popular British neoformalists. A devotee of Yeats, Hardy, and Dylan Thomas, Larkin never wears his influences too far away from his sleeve, but don't begrudge him that; marvel, instead, that in the turbulent anything-goes sixties lived a poet, misanthrop More...
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Jul 16, 2011
Susan
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I was delighted to discover these poems, to which I was led by David Orr's analysis of the reasons for reading and writing poetry. Because Larkin was British and wrote of earlier times that I am familiar with because I grew up in England, I found his themes, both local and universal, readily understandable and brilliantly expressed. "Talking in Bed" I loved the most, but by far the most moving is MCMXIV (which is 1914 in case you don't immediately realize it).
Oct 16, 2011
Shnedwards
rated it:
This is great stuff but I wouldn't be able to read it all the time without it getting me down. One of the poems, "Take One Home for the Kiddies" was already long familiar to me because it was included in my well-loved book of comic verse for kids, of all places!
Feb 11, 2009
Scroutch
rated it:
Kind of depressing as I remember. I'm not writing this review right after reading this collection, so I'm a bit fuzzy. There are some really great things about Philip Larkin. I super appreciate his revival of blank verse and his lyrical sensibility, but I feel like sometimes the content of his poems was just too banal and self-loathing/self-pitying. But maybe it deserves a re-read. There were certainly some gems in here.
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Nov 16, 2011
Chris
rated it: 
Eh, too reserved, too male, too British. Not bad, but it didn't move me at all.
Feb 15, 2011
Renee
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I don't know if I've ever read Larkin before...perhaps I have and it just didn't strike me at the time...but I'm overall very taken with this book. It reminded me of Rilke somewhat; didn't appreciate the few poems that were a little violent toward women (not ever a fan of graphic poetry) but found poems, like the title poem, to be stunningly beautiful. I'm interested in reading more of his work.
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Aug 17, 2011
Lysergius
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I preferred the North Ship. These are a little arch to my taste. More intellectual?
Jan 19, 2008
larkin's most famous. i think most of his best poems found in this collection.
Jan 09, 2011
Jim
rated it:
The best book of poetry i've ever read
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