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Philip Arthur Larkin, CH , CBE , FRSL , ( 9 August 1922 – 2 December 1985 ) was an English Poet , Novelist and Jazz Critic . He spent his working life as a university Librarian and was offered the Poet Laureate ship following the death of John Betjeman , but declined the post. Larkin is commonly regarded as one of the greatest English poets of the latter half of the Twentieth Century . In 2003 Larkin was chosen as the "nation's best-loved poet" in a Survey by the Poetry Book Society {Link without Title} . Larkin was born to Sydney and Eva Larkin in Coventry , a large provincial city in the English Midlands . He was educated at King Henry VIII School in Coventry, and St John's College , Oxford where he met Kingsley Amis , a lifelong friend and frequent correspondent. In late 1943 , soon after graduating from Oxford, he applied for, and was appointed to, the position of municipal librarian at Wellington, Shropshire . In 1946 , he became assistant librarian at University College, Leicester (Kingsley Amis got his idea for '' Lucky Jim '' on visiting Larkin and seeing the common room of Leicester University). In March 1955 , Larkin became librarian at the University Of Hull , a position he retained until his death. CAREER Larkin's early work shows the influence of Yeats , but his later poetic identity was influenced mainly by Thomas Hardy . He is well known for his use of colloquial language in his poetry, partly balanced by a similarly antique word choice. With fine use of Enjambement and Rhyme , his poetry is highly structured, but never rigid. Death and fatalism were recurring themes and subjects of his poetry; " Aubade " being an example of this. '' The Less Deceived '', published in 1955, marked Larkin as an up-and-coming poet. He was for a time associated with " The Movement ". The publication of ''" and "The Explosion", as well as the title poem. " Annus Mirabilis " (year of wonder), also from that volume, contains the frequently quoted observation that sexual intercourse began in 1963 ("rather late for me"). Besides poetry, Larkin published two novels, '' Jill '' ( 1946 ) and '' A Girl In Winter '' ( 1947 ), and several essays. Larkin was also a major contributor to the re-evaluation of the poetry of Thomas Hardy , which had been ignored in comparison to his work as a novelist. Hardy received the longest selection in Larkin's idiosyncratic and controversial anthology, '' The Oxford Book Of Twentieth-Century English Verse '' ( 1973 ). Larkin was by contrast a notable critic of Modernism in contemporary art and literature; his scepticism is at its most nuanced and illuminating in '' Required Writing '', a collection of his book reviews and essays; it is at its most inflamed and polemical in his introduction to his collected jazz reviews, '' All What Jazz '', 126 record-review columns he wrote for the ''Daily Telegraph'' between 1961 and 1971, which contains an attack on modern jazz that widens into a wholesale critique of modernism in the arts. On the death of John Betjeman , Larkin was offered the post of Poet Laureate , but declined it. Larkin, who never married, died of oesophageal cancer, aged 63, and is buried at the Cottingham Municipal Cemetery near Hull . Larkin's career-long companion and muse was the Academic Monica Jones . She and Larkin had a holiday cottage at Haydon Bridge where they spent many summers together. LEGACY Larkin's posthumous reputation was affected by the publication of '' (1993) and an Edition Of His Letters (1992), which revealed his obsessions with Pornography , his Racism , his increasing shift to the political Right Wing , and his habitual expressions of venom and spleen. These revelations have been dismissed by the author and critic Martin Amis (son of Kingsley Amis), who argues that the letters in particular show nothing more than a tendency for Larkin to tailor his words according to the recipient, rather than representing Larkin's true opinions. Despite controversy about his personal life and opinions, he remains one of Britain's most popular poets; three of his poems, ". His poem ''At Grass'' is featured in one Anthology booklet of the GCSE English exam, and ''Afternoons'' appears in another, ''Best Words''. Larkin's ''The Whitsun Weddings'' collection is one of the available poetry texts in the AQA English Literature A Level syllabus, whilst ''High Windows'' is offered by the OCR Board and ''An Arundel Tomb'' in the Edexcel Board Poetry Anthology. The Larkin Society was formed in 1995 , ten years after the poet's death; its president is Anthony Thwaite , one of Larkin's Literary Executor s. In is stored the Larkin archive at the University Of Hull {Link without Title} . Larkin was the subject of the '', in his introduction to the programme, stressed the poet had given his full cooperation. The programme featured contributions from Kingsley Amis , Andrew Motion and Alan Bennett . Bennett read several of Larkin's works on an edition of " Poetry In Motion ", broadcast by Channel 4 in 1990 {Link without Title} . In his acclaimed play '' The History Boys '' Bennett would quote from Larkin's '' MCMXIV '' and the character of the Headmaster, a Geography graduate from Hull, referred to Larkin as 'the Himmler of the accessions desk' {Link without Title} . '' {Link without Title} . In in London's West End. An audio recording was released in 2005 {Link without Title} . In broadcast the documentary '' Philip Larkin, Love And Death In Hull '' {Link without Title} . After lying undiscovered in a report {Link without Title} . BIBLIOGRAPHY Poetry
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