Larkin critics

Question 1

Peter Filkins

Answer 1

Larkin’s “central theme of love and the difficulty in attaining satisfaction within it”

Question 2

Marcus Herold (1)

Answer 2

“To Larkin, life obviously appears as a continues series of setbacks, as one long process of decay.”
Poems: Reference back

Question 3

John Betjeman

Answer 3

Larkin’s work “closed the gap between poetry and the public”
Poems: Self’s the man, Wild oats

Question 4

Andrew Motion

Answer 4

“Larkin was a person who had profound and unforgettable things to say about the human experience”

Question 5

L. Jardine

Answer 5

Calls Larkin an “easy misogynist”
Poems: Wild Oats, Love songs in age

Question 6

Larkin

Answer 6

“Deprivation is for me what daffodils were for Wordsworth”

Question 7

Marcus Herold (2)

Answer 7

“Larkin is indeed the bleak and pessimistic writer he is generally said to be”
Poems: talking in bed, Home is so sad, broadcast

Question 8

Marcus Herold (3)

Answer 8

“As a rule, Larkin speaks very unfavourably of his fellow citizens”
Poems: Self’s the man