Philip Larkin

Montage of Feck

The only poet worth a damn in my opinion.

retalivity

Montage of Feck wrote: »

The only poet worth a damn in my opinion.

He's no Heaney

Cant stand him

Thelonious Monk

Poetry sucks

Montage of Feck

Toads Revisited by Philip Larkin

Walking around in the park
Should feel better than work:
The lake, the sunshine,
The grass to lie on,

Blurred playground noises
Beyond black-stockinged nurses -
Not a bad place to be.
Yet it doesn't suit me.

Being one of the men
You meet of an afternoon:
Palsied old step-takers,
Hare-eyed clerks with the jitters,

Waxed-fleshed out-patients
Still vague from accidents,
And characters in long coats
Deep in the litter-baskets -

All dodging the toad work
By being stupid or weak.
Think of being them!
Hearing the hours chime,

Watching the bread delivered,
The sun by clouds covered,
The children going home;
Think of being them,

Turning over their failures
By some bed of lobelias,
Nowhere to go but indoors,
Nor friends but empty chairs -

No, give me my in-tray,
My loaf-haired secretary,
My shall-I-keep-the-call-in-Sir:
What else can I answer,

When the lights come on at four
At the end of another year?
Give me your arm, old toad;
Help me down Cemetery Road

Still waters

Kipling imo

khalessi

Heaney over Larkin
Eaven Boland
Rimbaud
Shakespeare
Linton Kwesi Johnson
Benjamin Zepphaniah
Spike Milligan

Montage of Feck

retalivity wrote: »

He's no Heaney

Nothing wrong with him I suppose, just at every wedding or funeral his stuff seems to get trotted out.

Flavour Diaper

Flavour Diaper

Still waters

I find the irish poets to be heavy going, great poets born out of poverty and misery and rebellious legacies, you need to be in the mood for them

Montage of Feck

Flavour Diaper wrote: »

Flavour Diaper

Never heard of them.

Still waters

Montage of Feck wrote: »

Nothing wrong with him I suppose, just at every wedding or funeral his stuff seems to get trotted out.

What kind of weddings do you be at that heaney is trotted out, I'd go to bed early if I thought I'd have to listen to that at half 3 in the residents bar

Quantum Erasure

Still waters wrote: »

Kipling imo

exceedingly good

Your Face

I always liked W.B. Yeats.
I remembered his poems from school. A few years ago got a book of his poetry.
There's something timeless about his style.

Rothko

Montage of Feck wrote: »

Nothing wrong with him I suppose, just at every wedding or funeral his stuff seems to get trotted out.

Never heard his stuff being read out at any wedding or funeral I've been at.

Montage of Feck

I posted Toads revisited as it almost perfectly describes the current lockdown situation.

Quantum Erasure

Emily Dickinson

Harry Palmr

Ah Emily Dickinson was a miserablist and the only woman on the LC reading list I think when I was a lad.

William McGonagall is where it's at.

"Beautiful railway bridge of the silv'ry Tay
Alas! I am very sorry to say
That ninety lives have been taken away
On the last sabbath day of 1879
Which will be remember'd for a very long time."

"Oh! Ill-fated bridge of the silv'ry Tay,
I now must conclude my lay
By telling the world fearlessly without the least dismay,
That your central girders would not have given way,
At least many sensible men do say,
Had they been supported on each side with buttresses
At least many sensible men confesses,
For the stronger we our houses do build,
The less chance we have of being killed."

Esel

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Spanish Eyes

"I caught this morning morning's minions
Kingdom of daylight's Dauphin", etc.

I spent ages at LC level figuring out this GMH poem The Windhover. It has stayed with me until this day umpteen years later. Uplifting, but I love birds anyway!

Montage of Feck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

Truthvader

Read "Ambulances" for something topical by Larkin

Spanish Eyes

Craig Raine's

"A Martian sends a postcard home" always resonated with me. Looking at our world from another perspective outside our own. Loved it.

Spanish Eyes

I know the OP is about Philip Larkin, but threads like this tend to drift a bit..

Giraffe Box

John Cooper Clarke

Realt Dearg Sec

Your Face wrote: »

I always liked W.B. Yeats.
I remembered his poems from school. A few years ago got a book of his poetry.
There's something timeless about his style.

September 1913 is timeless.

Ipso

Giraffe Box wrote: »

John Cooper Clarke

Enter the dragon, exit Johnny Clarke.

Kylta

Still waters wrote: »

I find the irish poets to be heavy going, great poets born out of poverty and misery and rebellious legacies, you need to be in the mood for them

I studied irish history and literature and to be honest I find the writers and the poets depressing ( ok call me a heathen). Would I be right in saying its dated?

Still waters

Kylta wrote: »

I studied irish history and literature and to be honest I find the writers and the poets depressing ( ok call me a heathen). Would I be right in saying its dated?

It seems like any of them never got past the 50s, they all read like some depressing variation of Angela's ashes

Better Than Christ

"They bring you up, your mum and dad..."

Is this the same lad,who used play corner back for kk

Church on Tuesday

Charles Bukowski

Fatalistically determined and fundamentally flawed.

Ipso

Church on Tuesday wrote: »

Charles Bukowski

Fatalistically determined and fundamentally flawed.

I'm fundamentally flawed in many ways, yet I'm not famous.

Church on Tuesday

Ipso wrote: »

I'm fundamentally flawed in many ways, yet I'm not famous.

We all are.

Stopitwillya

A much better hurler than he was at the poetry.

Immortal Starlight

For oft when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude
And then my heart with pleasure fills
And dances with the daffodils

Mr William Wordsworth = pure magic.

Hoop66

Still waters wrote: »

Kipling imo

Do you like Kipling?
I don't know, I've never Kippled.

Twat - John Cooper Clarke

Like a nightclub in the morning, you're the bitter end
Like a recently disinfected ****house, you're clean round the bend
You give me the horrors
Too bad to be true
All of my tomorrows
Are lousy 'cause of you
You put the Shat in Shatter
Put the Pain in Spain
Your germs are splattered about
Your face is just a stain
You're certainly no raver, commonly known as a drag
Do us all a favor, here, wear this polythene bag
You're like a dose of scabies
I've got you under my skin
You make life a fairytale
Grimm!
People mention murder, the moment you arrive
I'd consider killing you if I thought you were alive
You've got this slippery quality
It makes me think of phlegm
And a dual personality
I hate both of them
You're bad breath, vamps disease, destruction, and decay
Please, please, please, please, take yourself away
Like a death a birthday party
You ruin all the fun
Like a sucked and spat-our Smartie
You're no use to anyone
Like the shadow of the guillotine
On a dead consumptive's face
Speaking as an outsider
What do you think of the human race?
You went to a progressive psychiatrist
He recommended suicide
Before scratching your bad name off his list
And pointing the way outside
You hear laughter breaking through, it makes you want to fart
You're heading for a breakdown
Better pull yourself apart
Your dirty name gets passed about when something goes amiss
Your attitudes are platitudes
Just make me wanna piss
What kind of creature bore you
Was it some kind of bat?
They can't find a good word for you
But I can
Twat!

Giraffe Box

HAIKU by John Cooper Clarke

“To convey one’s mood
in seventeen syllables
is very diffic”

paw patrol

poetry is ****..

Badly Drunk Boy

I saw a bit of The Chase yesterday, and some woman was asked:
Who wrote the poem 'As Bad as a Mile' about the poet throwing an apple core into the bin but missing?

The options were Wordsworth, Larkin, or Chaucer. She went for Wordsworth, obviously. :rolleyes:

Giraffe Box wrote: »

HAIKU by John Cooper Clarke

“To convey one’s mood
in seventeen syllables
is very diffic”

Haiku annoy me, but I like that.

Earthhorse

There are plenty of poets worth a damn. Dickinson, Cummings, Bukowski and Simon Armitage more recently (reminds me a bit of Larkin).

Larkin too, but no, not the only poet worth a damn.

Earthhorse

bluewolf wrote: »

Cant stand him

Oh yeah?

I heard he's not too fond of you neither. :rolleyes:

1o059k7ewrqj3n

Can’t remember the channel now but there was a show on Larkin the other night. Mentioned he was into photography all his life and took hundreds if not thousands of photos.



I’m fairly sure this is one of his. He had a Browning/Brownie camera all his life, the same one.

topper75

paw patrol wrote: »

poetry is ****..

99% certainly is.

But the OP is still correct. Larkin's work is outstanding in that it has actual use.

When my wife ever acts annoyingly positive or enthusiastic, I slowly and deliberately recite Aubade in full. Brings it all back to an even keel I find.

paw patrol

topper75 wrote: »

99% certainly is.

But the OP is still correct. Larkin's work is outstanding in that it has actual use.

When my wife ever acts annoyingly positive or enthusiastic, I slowly and deliberately recite Aubade in full. Brings it all back to an even keel I find.

poetry is **** , but i do approve off your methods.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

This is my favorite poem:

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another’s throats.

Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don’t have any kids yourself.

Better Than Christ

I've just written a haiku about W.B. Yates.

Spelling his surname
Like Ivan's is something that
W.B Heats

Esel

Better Than Christ wrote: »

I've just written a haiku about W.B. Yates.

Spelling his surname
Like Ivan's is something that
W.B Heats

Missing two syllables on the last line!

'William Butler' would fix it?

Better Than Christ

Esel wrote: »

Missing two syllables on the last line!

'William Butler' would fix it?

double-you-bee

Esel

Better Than Christ wrote: »

double-you-bee

Bedtime for me, I think...

Earthhorse

Earthhorse wrote: »

Oh yeah?

I heard he's not too fond of you neither. :rolleyes: