A testament to this, Larkin's best-known poem, came in April 2009, when the first four lines were recited by a British appeal court judge as part of his judgement of a particularly acrimonious divorce case involving the future custody arrangements of a nine-year-old child.
Lord Justice Wall referred to the emotional damage caused to the child, saying: "These four lines seem to me to give a clear warning to parents who, post-separation, continue to fight the battles of the past, and show each other no respect." Not that my had ever heard of the poem.
Philip Larkin (1922-1985) was an odd sort of person to become a poet. He was a librarian by profession, a very good one according to his colleagues. Privately, however, he was solitary and misanthropic. An atheist, he believed that death was the end of existence, and he wrote several striking poems on that theme. Though heterosexual, he never married, and seems not to have had much liking for women beyond the sexual interest. He positively loathed children:
"Until I grew up I thought I hated everybody, but when I grew up I realized it was just children I didn't like. Once you started meeting grown-ups life was much pleasanter. Children are very horrible, aren't they? Selfish, noisy, cruel, vulgar little brutes."
All this negativity has repelled many poetry lovers. One critic, explaining why he denied that Larkin was a good poet, said: "Poetry is supposed to affirm." Well, it's true: Larkin doesn't affirm much. Another quote from his own lips (he is very quotable):
"Deprivation is for me what daffodils were for Wordsworth."
If you believe that life is pointless, that death is utter extinction, that procreation is a waste of time, that sex is a nuisance, and that children are horrible, obviously your poetry isn't going to be very affirmative.
We all feel like that some of the time, though. These are normal human thoughts and feelings, and it is hard to see why they shouldn't be entitled to poetic expression, or why a poet who expresses them elegantly and memorably should not be counted among the good poets.
I don't go around in a Larkin frame of mind all the time, but when I do get into that mood, I am very glad of Larkin's company. I've got a Philip Larkin mood coming up this very minute. They fuck you up, don't they?
