Philip Larkin

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I've been reading a lot of Philip Larkin recently and I'm beginning to think that possibly he may have had aspergers. His poems are beautiful and complex but never pretensious. He has a knack of puttting down in exactly the right words just what he feels and I really reccommend them.

I like Larkin too. Do you find he has a quirky sense of humour? I like the down-to-earth quality in his writing too.

Cheers, Starr! Yes I agree completely. Larkin had both a quirky sense of humour and was so staggeringly down to earth as a poet. When people ask me what I like and I say poetry People will say a certain poet and expect me to be into it because I've said I like poetry but I feel that there is crap poetry, just as there is crap music and crap art and it is the really profound poetry I can relate to that I really like. Do you ever feel this?
I recently heard Larkin reading some of his poems from an archive recording. You can hear it on youtube. It was such a shock as Larkin has been portrayed by many admirers who didn't know him as a grumpy old man, but hearing him read 'An Arundel Tomb' he comes across as a true romantic and so compassionate about what he felt most true and beautiful.

The feeling I get with Larkin is a kind of wistfulness, like he is an outsider, watching, and making shrewd judgements about people, but that he feels like he doesn't really belong in the hustle and bustle of life. I always get that sense when I read Whitsun Weddings, do you know what I mean?
I wouldn't be at all surprised if he had Asperger's.

Thomas Hardy is pure class. I especially like his poem 'I looked up from my writing.' It moves me every time I read it!

Tell me what you think of this, if you like, Faby it's a Lawrence poem I posted a while back in the Haven.
(Sorry, gone off topic a bit here, but my guess is that if you like Hardy, you might like this)


http://www.wrongplanet.net/modules.php? ... ic&t=22900

The poem is beautiful. It really is quite staggering. Thank you so much for drawing my attention to it.

That is the power of Lawrence, he can blow your socks off! And some people think poetry is dry and dusty