Philip Larkin, the poetry of absolute maturity

This study examines the basic thematic assumptions of Philip Larkin's mature poetry. Larkin's central concern is self-knowledge, which he sets against delusion. Self-knowledge allows one to understand that life is irredeemably mundane and often painful, while delusion, which he often satirizes, brings only false expectation. Thus disillusionment is the natural state of the honest man. Previous critics have been too willing to point out the sorrow of Larkin's poetry, but unable to discern its intellectual effort to conceptualize and instruct; Larkin's poetry certainly encompasses suffering, but it is more concerned with the necessity of truth than it is with emotion.

Following the introductory chapter, Chapter II digresses somewhat to show that Larkin's earliest poetry emphasizes almost exclusively the pain of life rather than the intellectual clarity insisted upon in his mature work. Thus the early poetry is less complex. Chapter III defines the extent of Larkin's pessimism, while Chapter IV examines his attitude toward a variety of experiences--love, for example--which can ease man's suffering but cannot preserve him from mutability and death. Chapter V turns to Larkin's verse strategies and how they help to develop a sense of quiet, reasonable judgment and stoic forbearance. Chapter VI demonstrates that just as Larkin decries optimistic delusion, he just as surely balances the threat of despairing disintegration with control and a sense of continuance.