“Mounting the lectern, I peruse a few Hectoring large-scale verses” from Church Going by Philip Larkin

I’d heard that Larkin is one of England’s favourite poets before I studied his work. I was therefore quite surprised at Larkin’s tone: dry, intellectual, often cynical, occasionally iconoclastic, sometimes even verging on misanthropic. It didn’t add up to me that he would be so loved if he was truly so negative. Indeed, peeling back his often minimalist, dystopian imagery, I found that there is a gentle empathetic presence in a lot of his work. The theme of transience dominates Larkin’s work. “Explosions” and “Whitsun Weddings” have a forward momentum that culminates in a lyrical metaphor of transcendence that emphasises that death and change are part of life, not the opposite to life. Addressing a difficult matter is different from being negative. In fact, I find Larkin’s views life-affirming. Larkin’s detached tone serves as a bleak baseline that allows his gentler remarks to stand out, most notably in “MCMXIV”, “Church Going” and “At Grass”. For a man who may initially seem to have nothing but contempt for religion, he turns to its powers quite a lot, underlining his how in tune he was with human nature as seen through his Biblical allusions in “Explosions” and “Cut Grass”.

It is a 28 A4 page (9,300 word) pdf download with only the most relevant material for your English Higher Level H1.