That Whitsun, I was late getting away
May 24, 2015 4:08 AM Subscribe
Phillip Larkin was one of Britain's most famous twentieth century poets. He's probably most well known for 'This Be The Verse' (nsfw) but another notable poem was 'The Whitsun Weddings' based on a railway journey or journeys he undertook from Hull to London fifty years ago. Fellow poet Ian McMillan revisits that journey.
All streets in time are visited.
posted by Samuel Farrow at 5:10 AM on May 24, 2015
posted by Samuel Farrow at 5:10 AM on May 24, 2015
It's strange, but I always get something in my eye when I read Larkin's The Mower.
posted by scruss at 8:17 AM on May 24, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by scruss at 8:17 AM on May 24, 2015 [3 favorites]
Phillip Larkin was William Wordsworth with a dirty mouth.
posted by rankfreudlite at 10:56 AM on May 24, 2015
posted by rankfreudlite at 10:56 AM on May 24, 2015
Great poet and a world-class Eric Morecambe lookalike as well.
His music criticism was also great. I can't comment about his main passion, trad jazz, but his analysis of the Beatles is well-known and sparsely captivating: "When you get to the top, there is nowhere to go but down, but the Beatles could not get down. There they remain, unreachable, frozen, fabulous."
posted by colie at 11:37 AM on May 24, 2015
His music criticism was also great. I can't comment about his main passion, trad jazz, but his analysis of the Beatles is well-known and sparsely captivating: "When you get to the top, there is nowhere to go but down, but the Beatles could not get down. There they remain, unreachable, frozen, fabulous."
posted by colie at 11:37 AM on May 24, 2015
"When you get to the top, there is nowhere to go but down, but the Beatles could not get down. There they remain, unreachable, frozen, fabulous."
As Larkin said in Annus Mirabilis,
Sexual intercourse began
In nineteen sixty-three
(which was rather late for me) -
Between the end of the Chatterley ban
And the Beatles' first LP.
posted by jonp72 at 1:00 PM on May 24, 2015 [2 favorites]
As Larkin said in Annus Mirabilis,
Sexual intercourse began
In nineteen sixty-three
(which was rather late for me) -
Between the end of the Chatterley ban
And the Beatles' first LP.
posted by jonp72 at 1:00 PM on May 24, 2015 [2 favorites]
It's nice to see a Larkin poem other than "This Be the Verse" getting some attention. Not that that's a bad poem, but it's far from his best, and it's frustrating to me that it seems to be the only Larkin poem anyone knows.
posted by holborne at 9:20 PM on May 24, 2015
posted by holborne at 9:20 PM on May 24, 2015
I do wish Wikipedia pages would stop trying to tell me what pieces of literature are about - it's often wrong (to me at least) and always reductive. Maybe it's helpful to GCSE students up against essay deadlines and I should simmer down, but really.
From the page linked above:
"As the train continues into London, with the afternoon shadows lengthening, his reflections turn to the permanence of what the newly-weds have done, yet its significance, though huge for them, seems to give him an ultimately disappointing message, suggested by the poem's final phrase. However, as a counter balance, rain brings fertility."
'an ultimately disappointing message'? Not the way I read it. The image isn't about rain, it's about a fall of arrows. The reader is being set up by 'London spread out in the sun' and 'bright knots of rail' to think about the sun glinting off a shower of arrows, each landing somewhere the narrator doesn't see. Each of the couples ends up somewhere in the postcode-fields of London in a new life together. I should admit that this more optimistic reading is probably influenced by having seen somewhere (not sure it was this precise quote) Larkin quoted saying what an optimistic poem it is.
So yes, Larkin is very often gloomy, but I don't think he's being gloomy here. If you are after something a bit more pessimistic, I've always liked the atmosphere of Friday Night at the Royal Station Hotel.
posted by calico at 10:08 PM on May 25, 2015
From the page linked above:
"As the train continues into London, with the afternoon shadows lengthening, his reflections turn to the permanence of what the newly-weds have done, yet its significance, though huge for them, seems to give him an ultimately disappointing message, suggested by the poem's final phrase. However, as a counter balance, rain brings fertility."
'an ultimately disappointing message'? Not the way I read it. The image isn't about rain, it's about a fall of arrows. The reader is being set up by 'London spread out in the sun' and 'bright knots of rail' to think about the sun glinting off a shower of arrows, each landing somewhere the narrator doesn't see. Each of the couples ends up somewhere in the postcode-fields of London in a new life together. I should admit that this more optimistic reading is probably influenced by having seen somewhere (not sure it was this precise quote) Larkin quoted saying what an optimistic poem it is.
So yes, Larkin is very often gloomy, but I don't think he's being gloomy here. If you are after something a bit more pessimistic, I've always liked the atmosphere of Friday Night at the Royal Station Hotel.
posted by calico at 10:08 PM on May 25, 2015
Oh, coincidence! I've just seen this on Twitter: an unpublished Larkin poem
posted by calico at 11:06 PM on May 25, 2015
posted by calico at 11:06 PM on May 25, 2015
So yes, Larkin is very often gloomy, but I don't think he's being gloomy here.
Yeah I'd agree with that (would the arrows being cupid's arrows be too obvious?)... I've ridden on that train line many times so that poem always has an extra something (and when I first read it in a collection of Larkins' its relative positivity shines out from the gloomtastic average of the rest)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:50 AM on May 26, 2015
Yeah I'd agree with that (would the arrows being cupid's arrows be too obvious?)... I've ridden on that train line many times so that poem always has an extra something (and when I first read it in a collection of Larkins' its relative positivity shines out from the gloomtastic average of the rest)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:50 AM on May 26, 2015
Magazine backtracks on Philip Larkin poem claim
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:44 AM on May 26, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:44 AM on May 26, 2015 [1 favorite]
Ah well - no great loss. But then I would say that now, wouldn't I?
posted by calico at 4:19 AM on May 27, 2015
posted by calico at 4:19 AM on May 27, 2015
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