Philip Larkin, Solitary Man: From Splendid Isolation to Remorse and Fear

Abstract

Abstract This paper analyses the development of the theme of solitude in the work of Philip Larkin, one of the most popular English poets of the post-war era, in his poems and letters covering a period of thirty years. In his lifetime, the “best poet laureate we never had” was often considered as the “Hermit of Hull,” due to his well-known reluctance to socialise. Over the period of his productive life, Larkin weighs the aspects of solitude, togetherness, and gregariousness. His poems reflect how the early wish to be alone as a precondition for his creativity gives way to an unwilling acceptance of conviviality and, finally, the blank fear of isolation and death, as expressed in his last great published poem, “Aubade.” It is shown that as his creativity dwindles away, Larkin grudgingly acknowledges his daily work as a librarian, once described as the ‘toad work,’ as a stabilising force in his life.