Appreciation …

… Article � The Greatness Of Philip Larkin � Commentary Magazine. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

The new biography also considers Larkin’s poetry, the main reason that this author’s conspicuously uneventful life matters. Booth carefully chronicles the creation of each significant poem in the context of the private events surrounding it. Such autobiographical interpretations of poetry can be reductive, and there are instances where Booth seems too literal, but his running commentary is consistently interesting and sometimes revelatory. For the first time, one sees the slow and uncertain development of Larkin’s early poetry, its sudden maturation in his late twenties, and then its equally sudden disappearance in the author’s early fifties. Booth’s parallel narratives of the man and his writing also demonstrate the great personal price Larkin paid for his poetry.