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Movement Poetry and Philip Larkin

Dr. Ramnita Saini Sharda

Dept. of English

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� The Movement

J.D. Scott coined the term Movement in 1954
To describe a group of writers of 1950s

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Movement Poets

Philip Larkin
Kingsley Amis
Donald Davie
D.J. Enright
John Wain

Elizabeth Jennings
Thom Gunn
John Holloway
Robert Conquest

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Background of the Movement

After the end of the Second World War (1939-1945), British public started to have a normal prosperous life.

life was healing from the pains of the war and people were in the process of forgetting the atrocities of the war. They were about to put the war behind.

Even though life was improving on many levels, the arts, however, and literature and theatre in particular, were in a rut.

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Background of the Movement

The literature produced was dominated by the ideas and sentiments of the ore-war times and neither poetry nor novel could reflect the change that took place because of the war. Poets, novelists and dramatists showed a reluctance to let go of Britain‘s imperial past and an obsession with class held sway. A radical shake-up was needed. Literature needed to get angry.

The title for the group was coined in 1954 by the literary editor of the spectator, J. D. Scott, who referred to ‗this new movement of the fifties‘.

However, the term caught on, and by rejecting the complexities of modernism the group helped return poetry to a wider readership.

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The Movement Poets

The Movement – were Oxbridge-educated, white, predominantly male (Jennings was the only woman in the group, and she was a late arrival), middle-class, Europhobic and for the most part heterosexual. Even so, they caught the mood of their time, and Larkin and Amis in particular are undeniably major figures in English literature.

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Anthologies

The Movement produced two anthologies
Enright‘s Poets of the 1950s (1955) and Conquest‘s New Lines (1956).

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The New Lines

Robert Conquest published an anthology of poems titled The New Lines
The anthology consisted of the poems of the 1950s writers
Movement Poets are also known as The New Line Poets

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Movement Poetry

1. It is ironical, down to earth, unsentimental and rooted in a nostalgic idea of English identity.
2. European sympathies were regarded as unmistakable signs of intellectual pretentiousness and moral turpitude. For some critics and readers, the poets‘ approach understandably evokes a narrow-minded Little Englandism.

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Features

1. Intelligent, Knowledgeable and Polished
2. Rational Structure and Intelligible Language
3. Not Politically Committed
4. Realistic Descriptions of Scenes and Persons
5. Philosophical Detachment
6. Emotionally Aloof
7. Colloquial Style

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1. Intelligent, Knowledgeable and Polished

Genuine & Healthy Poetry
Never insisted to be Metaphorical
Average readers could grasp

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2. Rational Structure and Intelligible Language

Was not Obscure & Difficult
Differed from the Syntax of Dylan Thomas

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3. Not Politically Committed�

Unlike W.H. Auden & Stephen Spender

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4. Realistic Descriptions of Scenes and Persons�

No Flights of fancy

No Deep Philosophy

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5. Philosophical Detachment�

Makes Honest Criticism of Life

Examples:

Coming
I Remember I Remember

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6. Emotionally Aloof�

Not a sentimental view of life

Matter of fact

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�7. Colloquial Style��

Uses Colloquial & Conversational Phrases
Simple lucid language

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Phillip LarKin (1922-1985)

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Philip Larkin

Philip Larkin was born in Coventry, England in 1922. He earned his BA from St. John‘s College, Oxford, where he befriended novelist and poet Kingsley Amis and finished with First Class Honors in English. After graduating, Larkin undertook professional studies to become a librarian. He worked in libraries his entire life.

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Larkin’s Books

Larkin published two novels—Jill (1946) and A Girl in Winter (1947)—as well as criticism, essays, and reviews of jazz music. He was one of post-war England‘s most famous poets, and was commonly referred to as ―England‘s other Poet Laureate‖ until his death in 1985. Indeed, when the position of laureate became vacant in 1984, many poets and critics favoured Larkin‘s appointment, but Larkin preferred to avoid the limelight.

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Poetry

The North Ship (1945)
The Less Deceived (1955)
The Whitsun Weddings (1964)
High Windows (1974)

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The main features of his poetry

It is purely English and inspired by English poets particularly Thomas Hardy and W.H. Auden.
He avoided obscurity, a very famous feature of the modernist writing as led by Eliot and Pound
It celebrates English life whether urban or rural.
It is written in simple conversational language that reflects modern life and addresses the majority of people.
Larkin basically rejected free verse and preferred to write using rhyme and rhythm, a matter that gives his poetry a musical and memorable quality.

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Why Did I Dream of You Last Night?

“So many things I had thought forgotten� Return to my mind with stranger pain:�- Like letters that arrive addressed to someone�Who left the house so many years ago.”�~ Philip Larkin

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Best Society

“Uncontradicting solitude�Supports me on its giant palm;�And like a sea-anemone�Or simple snail, there cautiously�Unfolds, emerges, what I am.”�~ Philip Larkin

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Love Again

“… it never worked for me.�Something to do with violence�A long way back, and wrong rewards,�And arrogant eternity.”�~ Philip Larkin

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“XXVI,” The North Ship

“This is the first thing�I have understood:�Time is the echo of an axe�Within a wood.”�~ Philip Larkin,

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Philip Larkin: Letters to Monica

“One of the quainter quirks of life is that we shall never know who dies on the same day as we do ourselves.”
“I feel the only thing you can do about life is to preserve it, by art if you're an artist, by children if you're not.”
“How little our careers express what lies in us, and yet how much time they take up. It's sad, really.”
“I have a sense of melancholy isolation, life rapidly vanishing, all the usual things. It's very strange how often strong feelings don't seem to carry any message of action.”

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