Exact identity is lost as love and beauty are lost except absolutely available at the same fuzzy moment. First Larkin goes to the trouble to create a rich moving picture; then he erases it, or at least erases the object of it, Kitty or Katy, then he claps on the two biggest abstractions in English poetry: love and beauty. And it works like a charm.
All poetry commentary should be this good.
Kay Ryan is a throwback to the glory days of literary criticism. Still, Clive James's last book, Somewhere Becoming Rain, is a collection of his writings on Larkin. The whole thing is superb but the introduction alone is worth the price of the book.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip. I just ordered a copy.
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