Philip Larkin Part I

Philip Larkin is one of the better English poets of the 20th century... but is also famous for having controversial views and for his profession of Librarian. He led a very dull life, in many ways, working as a University librarian rather than anything more glamorous like a TV pundit or academic lecturer….He spent much of his life in the provincial university of Hull... (Unlike the older Universities like Oxford and Cambridge). He was born in Coventry in the heart of the English provinces and seemed to be born to lead a dull provincial life. His parents were Sydney Larkin and his wife.. They lived in Radford, part of Coventry. His father was comfortably middle class with a good job in local government. His mother was a rather difficult passively demanding woman. She was dominated by her husband but their marriage was not a very happy one... Probably this was why Philip was always reluctant to commit wholly to marriage or any woman. He had one sister who was a lot older than him. His father was very right wing and had a serious interest in Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Sydney attended Nuremberg Rallies and sympathized with the Germans. He had swastikas decorating his house, and did not apparently take them down till War was declared in 1939. It was not a warm household and the Larkins did not mix much with friends or neighbors. But Philip seemed happy enough with his family, when young.  He went to grammar school and did very well, making friends and enjoying school. He loved Jazz and his parents were indulgent enough to buy him a drum kit.  He didn’t do well in his first exams at 16, but he stayed on at school and then passed his entrance exams for Oxford. Philip went to Oxford in 1940 when he was 18. He had poor eyesight and so was not able to join the army and was able to undertake a full degree course. Many of the male students were on shorter courses due to war service. He was a highly intelligent young man but was rather awkward and plain looking with a bit of a stammer. He made friends, including the novelist Kingsley Amis... But he was not very successful with girls. After college, he started to train as a librarian and got a job in Wellington Shropshire. When he qualified as a university librarian he got another job in a college in Leicester. He seemed to fit into provincial Britain of the 40s and 50s. She had won the War but had “lost the Peace” being left with enormous debts, suffering from poverty, bomb damage and a general feeling of depression. His father died of cancer in 1948, and Philp proposed to his then girlfriend, Ruth Bowman but their relationship broke up when he got another job at Queen’s University Belfast and moved there.