View of Larkin

Nihilistic, Bleak or Gloomy Outlook

Described by Eric Homberger as ‘the saddest heart in the post-war supermarket’ due to the darker aspects of life such as isolation, alienation and death, Philip Larkin is often dismissed as bleak or gloomy in outlook. His pessimistic approach is deeply rooted in the predicament of human life on which based the poem “Mr. Bleany,” wherein the central figure is leading a sub-standard life in his apartment. ‘Deceptions’ somehow privileges the suffering of the rapist, whilst letting the victim’s suffering slide into insignificance. The ‘Afternoons’ reflected the pessimism of a young couple that is pushing them to the side of their own lives. This dissatisfaction is part and parcel of Larkin’s poetic ability. Instead of directly describing the massacre and destruction of WW-II, he crafted pain, suffering and helplessness of a man under the impact of these destructive forces.

Life and Relationship, and Realism (Socio-Economic)

Larkin, in the reconstructive post war era, gave the run-around to God, religion and religious creeds. In spite of this non-sentimental and agnostic approach, he had earned a reputation of a great poet of his time as one who deals with the stark and harsh realities of his time with great realism. In fact, it is his non-romantic approach towards the precarious conditions of life that has given his poetry a long lasting popularity.

Besides giving plenty of space to his pessimistic and agnostic approach, he delineates a crystal clear picture of his society where the differences of class and culture emerge from the advancement of industrial revolution.

Anti-Myth

The poems on the course feature such ordinary occurrences as a lonely life in a room of Mr. Beaney, rapist and rape in “Deceptions,” boring wedding life of “Afternoons” remains the subject of poetry, instead of myth and allusion frequently finds in Eliot, Auden and others. Larkin said of his work: ‘I write about experiences, often quite simple everyday experiences which somehow acquire some sort of special meaning for me, and I write poems about them to preserve them’. Thus, there is less space for myth and more to realism. Larkin describes very realistically the truth of our social life, wherein a person’s character is judged by his style of living.

Even his love poems describe an utterly unromantic view of human life in the backdrop of the sexual act, which is generally believed to bring about fulfillment and sexual relief. 

Conclusion

In Larkin’s poems, the sexual act is altogether a deception and a sense of dissatisfaction attached to hopelessness that seems to penetrate everything with a feeling of emptiness. Thus, Larkin’s poetry is greatly reinforced by the cataclysmic scenario of post-war England. Intentionally and deliberately, he does avoid deceptions and through his perceptions, he presents the facts as they actually exist. If Christopher Ricks finds in him “a deep and true feeling for human loneliness and longing,” then Donald Davie described him as a poet of “lowered sights and diminished expectations.” His poems are marked by what Andrew Motion calls “glum accuracy about emotions, places, and relationships.”

The age of Larkin was an age of disaster and chaos on a social and moral level all over the world. The flames of Second World War were still burning in the late nineteen-fifties and there was a decline in the values cherished by societies. People had seen much destruction in the wake of first and second world wars and they had started raising questions about the existence of God. That was a scenario where Philip Larkin was born and brought up.

Mr. Bleany is a lonely person, isolated from others; there is nothing neither charming nor attractive in his life and in his apartment.. But

Larkin’s poetry is greatly overwhelmed by one single thought and that is death, which eventually leads the human mind to decline and deprivation.

Larkin’s so-called love poetry, devoid of any romantic passions and emotions by focusing on the peripheral issues of human life reveals tragic aspects and tragedies that have been inseparable to man, since time immemorial. This has been Larkin’s approach that altogether shuns superficial treatment of human suffering and presents pathetic, realistic pictures of human life.

They were described by Jean Hartley, the ex-wife of Larkin’s publisher George Hartley (The Marvell Press), as a “piquant mixture of lyricism and discontent.”