This session of Our Life in Poetry will examine the poetic accomplishment of Philip Larkin, one of England's best-known twentieth-century poets. The course will be taught by Michael Braziller, publisher and co-founder of Persea Books. Mr. Braziller and his guest, British Poet Laureate Andrew Motion, will look at Larkin's uniquely restrained English sensibility, and the traditional formalism of his rhythmically polished and intricately rhymed poems. But Larkin was also a colloquial writer steeped in accurate and humorous observations of the modern world. (He has been referred to as a comic Thomas Hardy.) Many of his poems deal with the emotional and psychological complexities of disappointment, disillusionment, and lost opportunities. Braziller and Motion will give particular attention to the feelings of detachment and displeasure present in many of Larkin's poems, including "Coming," "Church Going," "The Whitsun Weddings," "An Arundel Tomb," "Cut Grass," and "High Windows." In addition to discussing the poems of Larkin, Andrew Motion will read and discuss a section of his recently published memoir, In the Blood. No prior registration or fee is required. To view the poems, please click on the link below. Please bring a printed copy to the class. Copies of the poems will not be provided at the event.

Larkin Poems (PDF)
Larkin Poems (Word)

Andrew Motion is an acclaimed poet, critic, and biographer. He was appointed the British Poet Laureate in May 1999, succeeding Ted Hughes. He is the author of ten books of poetry and six books of prose, including the widely acclaimed biographies of John Keats and Philip Larkin. He lives in London, where he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and teaches creative writing at Royal Holloway, University of London.

"This Be The Verse" from Collected Poems by Philip Larkin. Copyright (c) 1988, 2003 by the Estate of Philip Larkin. Reprinted in the Philoctetes newsletter, Dialog, by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.