Well, we’ve had quite a while to forget. but here we are in 2021 still talking about
him. Amis, yes, sadly he’s long gone. But Larkin, no chance. He’s too distinctive.

Well, I'm from the states, Cameron, so probably I shouldn't have brought that up. Maybe I'm wrong. Most likely I am. But I've been an expat for a long time, and we all bond at the pub. So, you meet Eliot when things kick off and end up with Larkin by the end of the night. And you're grateful for it.

I "met" Larkin in 1972 aged 10. "At Grass" it was. I didn't realise it was a newish poem. For me, it might as well have been written 100 years before. That is, I think, what marks great poetry. Timelessness. Larkin was deliberately unmodern, and with good reason. He wasn't writing for contemporary sensibility; he was writing for the ages. He was the best English poet of the 20th century by far. Fact.

Duncan

I like that, James.

Even I like that, James.

Subjective: I don't much like Larkin and I don't much like his specific tradition.

Others do. Cool. Aesthetic is subjective; that's the beauty of it. I try to resist such comments as "Fact" though Duncan. I don't really want to make poetry into a mathematical series of "fact(s)".

Yes, Cameron, that's fine by me. But you're the one who's missing out.

Duncan

I hate Larkin. Hate him. Hate.
He is a poet who knows all the right spells and uses them to make the world appear a worse place that it is.

Thou hast conquered, O pale Librarian. And the world has grown grey from thy breath.

Just trying to be helpful.

You can thank me later.

Since this discussion seems to have shifted to Philip Larkin: Pro, Con, I'm on team Larkin.

I happen to discuss a couple of his poems in an essay in Light this month.

Funny how divisive he is nearly 50 years after his last collection. Some people love him and some think he's a kind of baleful magician of death. Ha. And even people here who agree about most other things are split: for example I know Cally loves him while Nemo I don't think is keen. I think this at least proves he's going to be around for a while.

Edit: interesting essay, Max.

I love Larkin. Love him. Love.

thing is he was also funny, which a lot of people can't deal with.
yes, i know his dad was a Nazi. and yes, he liked spanky porn mags
and all that. that he drank too much and was wildly racist in later life.
that, in fact, he was a bit of an all round nut-job.

which leaves the rather awkward question as to why he was so good.
there is a statue of him in Hull. and The Philip Larkin Society may
have something to say about trying to expunge him from the canon.