The Recurring Theme of Death in the Poetry of Philip Larkin. Essay

The pass Theme of Death in the Poetry of Philip Larkin.In reading the poesy of Philip Larkin for the first time, one isstruck by the characteristically glum melody that pervades most ofhis poems. The vast majority of his verse is devoted to what isgenerally interpreted to be negative aspects of support, such as loneliness anddejection, mortifications, loss, and the terrifying arithmetic mean ofimpending death. Evidently, there are uplifting and humorous sides tohis work as well, but for certain reasons Larkin is invariablyidentified with a downhearted, pessimistic humor and tone of voice,conveying a constant sense of failure and of disappointment thatunderlies all the more specific emotions and reflections of individualpoems.Frequently, Larkin is just sad, and one is dazed then at the widerange of things and events, from bullion (Money I listen to moneysinging It is intensely sad. (198)), to a delayed plane(Autobiography at an Air-Station, where the someone obviously hadhope d to leave before sunset, but dropnot, because his machine isseveral hours delayed. When he says I set So much on thisAssumption. Now its failed (78), this response would break through a littleoversensitive, did not the backup indicate that something more is universedealt with here than just an afternoon at the airport), that candepress him.Larkin can be violently energetic as well, and so deep is hisembitterment at times that he believes himself to be maliciouslytricked out of something he had sooner been entitled to - althoughhe is genuinely vague about who or what it was that cheated him, or thenature of his initial hopes. An illustrative case in point is thetitle of his second substantial volume of verse, ... ...is no sense of human concussion and interaction, orwant of it.For Larkin, a sense of loss seems to be inevitable as life goes on,and his fatalistic - and somewhat bewildering - contention is that thecourse of ones life is essentially independent of ones actions. However, Larkin does not explicitly point the finger at one person,group or institution, although he comments on parents, society and passionateness as being flawed in other poems. Larkins message of his poetry, linked with the recurring theme of death, is that things just happento be the way they are, without anyone in particular wanting them to beso - a conclusion that furthermore is very much in line with Larkinsfatalistic frame of mind.WORKS CITED1 Larkin history found on www.philiplarkin.com (Philip Larkin Society)2 Larkin, Philip. Collected Poems. London The Marvell Press, 1988.