5 ms·

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.
    - AlecSchueler 4y ago
      This is a very charged comment about very subjective things so I don't want to get into it too deeply. I'm not sure what you mean that no one has been of any importance since Ginsberg as that's absolutely not true. Heaney himself was in the generation after that, and there's been plenty since, Paul Muldoon, John Ashbury, Leontia Flynn, Ciaran Carson, Meadbh McGuckin, Sophie Collins, Dan Paterson, honestly the list goes on and on. These people have been hugely important in my life and in the lives of many people around me. People absolutely care about modern poetry and magazines like the Paris Review are in very high circulation. Beyond the confines of traditional print media I also see more and more people in the younger generation using platforms like Instagram to share original poetry. Sam Riviere is particularly notably there for having published his books first via Tumblr before they were collected and printed by Faber. I can sympathise with the idea that these poets might not be to your personal taste but to write whole generations off as unimportant because of that is a very self centered outlook. With regards to the poets on the new curriculum I personally find them very exciting and I think there's something to be said for kids being exposed to verse beyond rhyming iambic pentemeter written by people who look like them or come from less dominant cultural backgrounds like they themselves might do.
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...

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.
  - AlecSchueler 4y ago
    This is a very charged comment about very subjective things so I don't want to get into it too deeply. I'm not sure what you mean that no one has been of any importance since Ginsberg as that's absolutely not true. Heaney himself was in the generation after that, and there's been plenty since, Paul Muldoon, John Ashbury, Leontia Flynn, Ciaran Carson, Meadbh McGuckin, Sophie Collins, Dan Paterson, honestly the list goes on and on. These people have been hugely important in my life and in the lives of many people around me. People absolutely care about modern poetry and magazines like the Paris Review are in very high circulation. Beyond the confines of traditional print media I also see more and more people in the younger generation using platforms like Instagram to share original poetry. Sam Riviere is particularly notably there for having published his books first via Tumblr before they were collected and printed by Faber. I can sympathise with the idea that these poets might not be to your personal taste but to write whole generations off as unimportant because of that is a very self centered outlook. With regards to the poets on the new curriculum I personally find them very exciting and I think there's something to be said for kids being exposed to verse beyond rhyming iambic pentemeter written by people who look like them or come from less dominant cultural backgrounds like they themselves might do.

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...