Janet, sure you could love Larkin loved you not Thomas
too--many people love Larkin who can't bear to read Thomas. Was it HQ who asked what other Thomas poems I liked? I
like very much "The Hand that Signed the Paper" (which
someone kindly posted) and "The Force that Through the
Green Fuse" and one about a hunchback in a park. Can't
think of any others, though there may be one or two that
don't come to mind. I find most of his stuff "romantic"
in the worst sense of that word, "rhetorical" in the
worst sense of that word, and generally unreadable. Not
the poems of a grown man. As someone tersely said, hot
air. He himself had some sense of that, I believe. It interests me that at his readings he tended to recite
poems by mssters of the plain style, Hardy especially
(his favorite poet, though it would be hard to imagine
anyone more different except maybe Larkin, or anyone who
less influenced his verse). If you want to read a really
good poet named Thomas, read Edward Thomas.
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