Books and Arts; Book Review; Philip Larkin;Library book;The Complete Poems of Philip Larkin. Edited by Archie Burnett.Philip Larkin's fame could rest on a dozen poems alone.Even while he was still alive, the poet and lifelong librarian at Hull Universityin the north of England was considered by many to be one of the finest writers of his generation.With his love of jazz, beautiful women and the grey palettes of post-war Britain,his witty, acerbic verse was a fine counterpoint to the more sentimental stuffproduced by the London-born poet laureate, Sir John Betjeman.Eminently quotable, Larkin's poetry caught a spirit of middle-class disaffection and quiet rebellion.He became known for the short, aphoristic sayings contained within the four slim volumes of poetry he published in his lifetime,such as the assertion that “Sexual intercourse began/In nineteen sixty-three”.His poems were pithy and to the point; short, but often demanding to be reread.This is one reason why the voluminous size of “The Complete Poems” is startling.Its editor, Archie Burnett, has carefully collected all of the poems Larkin ever wrote.Included in the volume are the four published collections and Larkin's previously published juvenilia,but also all that remained unpublished or unfinished, from sketches found in Larkin's archive to poems included in letters to friends.
