John Gilroy, Philip Larkin: Selected Poems

This book (also available from the Kindle store on Amazon.com) offers a detailed commentary on the poetry of Philip Larkin, exploring the political and cultural contexts which have shaped his contemporary reputation.

Contents

Part 1, Life and Times, traces Larkin’s early years and follows his development, within his career as a university librarian, into one of the most important and popular voices in twentieth-century poetry.

Part 2, Artistic Strategies, explores a range of methodologies and aesthetic influences by which Larkin was able to create poetry at once both accessible and profound.

Part 3, Reading Larkin, provides detailed critical commentary on many of the poems from his three major collections, The Less Deceived, The Whitsun Weddings and High Windows: Next, Please / Toads / Triple Time / No Road / Poetryof Departures / Dry-Point / Deceptions / At Grass / Church Going / Days / Talking in Bed / A Study of Reading Habits / As Bad as a Mile / An Arundel Tomb / Toads Revisited / Mr Bleaney / MCMXIV / Ambulances / The Whitsun Weddings / Dockery and Son / Self’s the Man / To the Sea / Sad Steps / Vers de Société / The Building/High Windows / Show Saturday / Annus Mirabilis / The Trees / Aubade.

Part 4, Reception, outlines the history of Larkin’s reputation from the mid-1950s to the present, examining the debates and ideological confrontations to which his poetry has given rise.

John Gilroy

John Gilroy teaches English at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge. He is co-author of A Commentary on Wordsworth’s ‘Prelude’ 1–V (RKP, 1983) and has published Gerard Manley Hopkins: Selected Poems for the Humanities Ebooks ‘Insights’ series. He has contributed to various literary publications, lectured widely at home and abroad, and is a course director for the University of Cambridge Insititute of Continuing Education’s residential and international programmes.