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Oh! I don’t know how to say this without sounding super geeky: I didn’t know before this article Larkin the poet. The only association I had with the name is t

Oh! I don’t know how to say this without sounding super geeky: I didn’t know before this article Larkin the poet. The only association I had with the name is that it was one of the names for a non-player character in a Dungeons and Dragons campaign (Critical Role, season 1x71) Now that might be just a coincidence, and maybe it is. The interesting thing is that the lack of trust was a central theme of that character. (The players didn’t trust her, the character was actively betraying the trust of her compatriots, she had a different alias indicating that she is the Deceiver.) I’m wondering if maybe the association unconsciously affected the name choice of the dungeons master.

deepdriver 4y ago
I had an entirely different association: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5657155/ https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5657155/ Cheeky inspiration for the Critical Roll character?
chrisseaton 4y ago
Larkin is like Shakespeare a core of English Literature education in the UK - most people in the UK will be intimately familiar with his work therefore.
- Angostura 4y ago
  Interesting. I'm in the UK and was never shown any Larkin, as far as I know (I'm mid 50s). Neither of my daughters did Larkin (just finished secondary).
  - bufordtwain 4y ago
    Same here. It's not all bad though, I think a lot of Larkin's poetry can best be appreciated when you have a few years behind you and have had some of the same experiences as him.
  - rikroots 4y ago
    Same age (ish) here. I would have killed for the chance to read Larkin, or any 20th century poet, as part of the English syllabus. Instead I got to spend many, many hours grappling with Chaucer: A povre wydwe, somdeel stape in age, / Was whilom dwellyng in a narwe cotage, / Biside a grove, stondynge in a dale ... ... I failed my English Literature O Level.
  - chrisseaton 4y ago
    Did you do English Literature?
    - Angostura 4y ago
      At GCSE, yes.
- vixen99 4y ago
  But not so likely with the upcoming generation. The GCSE (a vital qualifying exam in the UK taken at more or less the US 10th grade level) syllabus has now been adjusted not to include Philip Larkin or Wilfrid Owen in a 'diversity drive'. Fair enough because not all great writers can be included in a crowded syllabus. I don't know who the replacement authors are but trust that they are of equivalent merit.
  - AlecSchueler 4y ago
    Some really fantastic stuff on the new curriculum by the likes of Fatimah Asghar, Zaffar Kunial and Ilya Kaminsky! I'm sure Larkin was a great addition in his day, with a much more contemporary style of writing than a lot of the older poetry that had the standard stuff before. Probably turned a lot of kids onto poetry who would have otherwise yawned at it. I'm hopeful that these new updates will have the same effect and have a lot more resonance with the younger generations. Agree with yourself that it's a pity to lose people like Larkin and Heaney but the replacements are very exciting indeed and those old names are so, so big that anyone who develops even a passing interest in poetry will surely run across them quickly.
    - barry-cotter 4y ago
      How could you possibly call what Asghar writes poetry? It’s like someone was genuinely trying to prove that free verse means nothing. It’s ok as prose, in parts. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/fatimah-asghar#tab-poems https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/fatimah-asghar#tab-po... Zaffar Kunial likewise doesn’t pay any visible attention to rhythm or metre or anything that might make what be writes poetry but at least he can write some evocative prose. https://poems.poetrysociety.org.uk/poets/zaffar-kunial/ https://poems.poetrysociety.org.uk/poets/zaffar-kunial/ Ilya Kaminsky likewise is the kind of “poet” that explains why poets have been off no importance in the Anglophone world since Ginsberg. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/ilya-kaminsky#tab-poems https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/ilya-kaminsky#tab-poe... Thank you. I needed that reminder of why no one cares about modern poetry. I do feel sad for the students who will be deprived of the chance to be exposed to poetry in the poetry section of their literature studies but all things pass.
- pyuser583 4y ago
  Larkin isn’t really becoming “high art.” He’s more like Kipling: a great poet, but too popular for scholars. Are really going to have students write reports on This Be the Verse? https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48419/this-be-the-verse https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48419/this-be-the-ver...

deepdriver 4y ago

I had an entirely different association: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5657155/ https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5657155/ Cheeky inspiration for the Critical Roll character?

chrisseaton 4y ago

Larkin is like Shakespeare a core of English Literature education in the UK - most people in the UK will be intimately familiar with his work therefore.

Angostura 4y ago
Interesting. I'm in the UK and was never shown any Larkin, as far as I know (I'm mid 50s). Neither of my daughters did Larkin (just finished secondary).
- bufordtwain 4y ago
  Same here. It's not all bad though, I think a lot of Larkin's poetry can best be appreciated when you have a few years behind you and have had some of the same experiences as him.
- rikroots 4y ago
  Same age (ish) here. I would have killed for the chance to read Larkin, or any 20th century poet, as part of the English syllabus. Instead I got to spend many, many hours grappling with Chaucer: A povre wydwe, somdeel stape in age, / Was whilom dwellyng in a narwe cotage, / Biside a grove, stondynge in a dale ... ... I failed my English Literature O Level.
- chrisseaton 4y ago
  Did you do English Literature?
  - Angostura 4y ago
    At GCSE, yes.
vixen99 4y ago
But not so likely with the upcoming generation. The GCSE (a vital qualifying exam in the UK taken at more or less the US 10th grade level) syllabus has now been adjusted not to include Philip Larkin or Wilfrid Owen in a 'diversity drive'. Fair enough because not all great writers can be included in a crowded syllabus. I don't know who the replacement authors are but trust that they are of equivalent merit.
- AlecSchueler 4y ago
  Some really fantastic stuff on the new curriculum by the likes of Fatimah Asghar, Zaffar Kunial and Ilya Kaminsky! I'm sure Larkin was a great addition in his day, with a much more contemporary style of writing than a lot of the older poetry that had the standard stuff before. Probably turned a lot of kids onto poetry who would have otherwise yawned at it. I'm hopeful that these new updates will have the same effect and have a lot more resonance with the younger generations. Agree with yourself that it's a pity to lose people like Larkin and Heaney but the replacements are very exciting indeed and those old names are so, so big that anyone who develops even a passing interest in poetry will surely run across them quickly.
  - barry-cotter 4y ago
    How could you possibly call what Asghar writes poetry? It’s like someone was genuinely trying to prove that free verse means nothing. It’s ok as prose, in parts. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/fatimah-asghar#tab-poems https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/fatimah-asghar#tab-po... Zaffar Kunial likewise doesn’t pay any visible attention to rhythm or metre or anything that might make what be writes poetry but at least he can write some evocative prose. https://poems.poetrysociety.org.uk/poets/zaffar-kunial/ https://poems.poetrysociety.org.uk/poets/zaffar-kunial/ Ilya Kaminsky likewise is the kind of “poet” that explains why poets have been off no importance in the Anglophone world since Ginsberg. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/ilya-kaminsky#tab-poems https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/ilya-kaminsky#tab-poe... Thank you. I needed that reminder of why no one cares about modern poetry. I do feel sad for the students who will be deprived of the chance to be exposed to poetry in the poetry section of their literature studies but all things pass.
pyuser583 4y ago
Larkin isn’t really becoming “high art.” He’s more like Kipling: a great poet, but too popular for scholars. Are really going to have students write reports on This Be the Verse? https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48419/this-be-the-verse https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48419/this-be-the-ver...