July 2012

Nomination: Wires [4 November 1950. From The Less Deceived]

I think this was the very first poem I ever read by Larkin. It was published in The Spectator in the issue of 2 October 1953. I was an undergraduate at Oxford at the time Within the next few months I read more Larkin poems, in The Spectator and in early issues of the Hartleys’ magazine Listen; and through all these I realised how very good Larkin was.

Anthony Thwaite [April 2001]