December 2002 Nomination: Aubade [29 November 1977. The Times Literary Supplement 23 December 1977] It’s sometimes said that Larkin ‘dried up’ after High Windows and wrote nothing worth [...]

November 2002 Nomination: Guitar Piece II [18 September 1946. From Collected Poems (1988)] The second of Larkin’s ‘Two Guitar Pieces’ was completed on 18 September 1946, the month in which the [...]

October 2002 Nomination: At Grass [3 January 1950. From XX Poems and The Less Deceived] ‘At Grass’ (1950) has been used (for example by Alvarez) to exemplify poetic timidity or even [...]

September 2002 Nomination: This Be The Verse [April 1971. From High Windows] For millions, this terribly British poem encapsulates both the agony of parenthood and our rage at our parents for [...]

August 2002 Nomination: The School in August [1943 ? From Collected Poems (1988)] This lovely, simple poem captures so well the solitude, and unanswered questions of an empty school in the summer [...]

July 2002 Nomination: Broadcast [6 November 1961. From The Whitsun Weddings] This poem was first published in The Listener in January 1962. On my copy Philip wrote: ‘To Maeve who wd. sooner [...]

June 2002 Nomination: Like the train’s beat [1943–4. From The North Ship] When I first read it, the image leapt to life, so much so that I dreamed of writing a novel in which a character would [...]

May 2002 Nomination: The Mower [12 June 1979. From Collected Poems (1988)] I remember too well Philip telling me of the death of the hedgehog: it was in his office the following morning with [...]

April 2002 Nomination: Absences [28 November 1950. From The Less Deceived] Larkin claimed a special affection for ‘Absences’, perhaps because he knew that in matter and manner it works in ways [...]

April 2002 Nomination: An April Sunday brings the snow [4 April 1948] This short elegy is one of Larkin’s most directly moving poems. It is also his first attempt to write in what was to become [...]

March 2002 Nomination: Continuing to Live [24 April 1954. From A Keepsake for the New Library] I extracted this poem from Philip under duress for the Keepsake published at the opening of the new [...]

February 2002 Nomination: Tops [24 October 1953. From Collected Poems (1988)] This poem was written in 1953, but did not appear in any of the major collections, and deserves to be better known. [...]

January 2002 Nomination: Dockery and Son [28 March 1963. From The Whitsun Weddings] ‘Dockery and Son’ succeeds in surprising and delighting us because (and although) it is a such a typical Larkin [...]

December 2001 Nomination: Wedding-Wind [26 September 1946. From XX Poems and The Less Deceived] I have always been a keen reader (and occasional writer) of poetry. I first came across Larkin when [...]

November 2001 Nomination: The Dance [30 June 1963 – 12 May 1964 (unfinished).] ‘The Dance’ is my favorite poem (though I believe it’s considered unfinished). I came across the poem some years ago [...]

October 2001 Nomination: The Old Fools [12 January 1973. From High Windows] I can at present think of no poem which moves me so much as “The Old Fools”, though it is undeniably uncomfortable. I [...]

August 2001 Nomination: The Whitsun Weddings [18 October 1958. From The Whitsun Weddings] This is one of the three or four really spacious, almost symphonic Larkin poems, alongside ‘Church [...]

July 2001 Nomination: Mr Bleaney [May 1955. From The Whitsun Weddings] I am currently studying Philip Larkin’s Whitsun Weddings as part of my A-Level English Literature course, I have become [...]

June 2001 Nomination: Afternoons [September ? 1959. From The Whitsun Weddings] ‘Afternoons’ in some ways is a time capsule since in the poem Larkin observes such things as mothers “setting free” [...]

May 2001 Nomination: An Arundel Tomb [20 February 1956] One of the lasting bequests left perhaps unwittingly by Philip Larkin can be described as a ‘paper chase.’ Not the usual kind: but [...]