Volume 22, Number 8 · May 15, 1975
The Art of Debunkery
By Richard Murphy
High Windows
by Philip Larkin
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 42 pp., $6.95
A glass case in a room called 'The English Tradition' is where some people, Americans especially, think that Philip Larkin's poetry belongs: they imagine he is a kind of old-fashioned taxidermist who fluffs up the wings of dead ducks, like the iambic pentameter and the rhymed quatrain, for a public devoted to almost extinct birds. His admirers, mostly British, feel that he writes with more precision than any other living poet about real people in real places; they can quote him, because his mastery of rhyme and meter enables him to write memorably; and they count among their favorite books of the century The Less Deceived and The Whitsun Weddings.[1]
Review, 3259 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |