In Oxford Larkin
seems to have started writing but many of his works were spoof semi
pornographic parodies of “girls school stories”. Critics have felt that he was at times trying
to work out his confused sexuality and compensating for a certain lack of
success with women. His family
background had not been a very happy one, in some ways. Although his parents were indulgent, they
were not on good terms and there was a lack of warm affection in the
household. He remained dutifully
attached to his mother but she was demanding and difficult. His father had been domineering and had had
sympathy with Nazism. Coupled with his
shyness and awkwardness, this made Larkin very clumsy with women and also very reluctant
to commit to anyone. When at Belfast, he
started the series of affairs that went on for most of his life. He had at least 3 women whom he saw simultaneously,
being unwilling to marry or settle for any one of them. The first woman was Monica Jones, a lecturer
and he then started a relationship with Maeve Brennan, an Irishwoman who worked
in Hull University’s library. She was a
devout Catholic but in time, she became his mistress. He also began a relationship with Betty who
was his personal secretary at the library, which continued for 20 years. In spite of his very “ordinary” dully middle
class lifestyle, he seems to have stubbornly refused to “do the conventional
middle class thing” and get married and have a family…..
He wrote a couple
of short novels at Oxford (as well as the spoof school stories)... and started
to write poetry, under the influence of Yeats’ more symbolistic works…
However in Belfast he began to find his own voice
as a poet…. He wrote of ordinary things,
had a gloomy and pessimistic viewpoint and used slangy and vulgar language at
times in the poems. He believed that the image of England as a rural
meaningful place where there was a sense of national community was passing away
and would not come back...and he was sad about it. He saw the country as increasingly fragmented
and empty... He wrote sadly about families... stating baldly that “They F-ck
you up, your Mum and Dad”… the poem ends
with the gloomy lines “Get out as early as you can.. and don’t have any kids
yourself”….
which seems to fit in with his own refusal to marry and
have children
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