Philip Larkin Modern Poetry analysis
Philip Larkin, post war modern poet, is essentially anti romantic and anti-heroic in his realistic projection of human society and the pessimistic state of modern man's affairs. According to Eric Homberger Larkin may perhaps be called "the saddest heart in the post-war" era. Larkin's poetry carries "plainness and scepticism". Though Larkin is associated with The Movement which rejected experimental poetry and contented with anti-romantic and structured verses meant for the supremacy of English verse and Engalnd, yet his poetical work is beautifully blended with the influences of the 20th century symbolists i.e. Yeats, T.S. Eliot and Hardy, the pessimist. His poetry is simple combining "ordinary, colloquial" verses with accurateness, "clarity" and "reflective tone" about emotions, places and relationships. Irony is the undercurrent of his direct engagement with the general matters displaying "diminished expectations".
Salient features of Philip Larkin's poetry are listed below:
Symbolism
Pessimism
Scepticism
Irony
Simplicity and colloquial
Philip Larkin is a modern poet writing in the language of common people about the life and matters around him. He based his poetry on the actual experiences of man i.e. realism. His poetry is the "poetry of disappointment". He views the "destruction of romantic illusions" in this era of anti-romantic and anti-heroic age. Today, man is so incompetent that he stands defeated at the hands of time.
