Is Philip Larkin pre-eminently a poet of loneliness and loss?

“Larkin is pre-eminently a poet of loneliness and loss.” How far do you agree with this statement? Make reference to the poems we have read so far in your response.

Philip Larkin, one of Britain’s best loved poets, was known for his often unenthusiastic outlook towards life and the people that surrounded him. His poems have the proclivity to show the ways in which Larkin was dissatisfied with his own life, and not just the life of the persona in the poem. As well as loneliness and loss, other prominent themes are also present in his works, such as jealousy, bitterness and pain.

In the poem Mr Bleaney, Larkin does indeed portray a theme of loneliness. From his 1964 Whitsun Weddings collection and written in 1955, the pain and memory of the Second World War were still very much present in the minds of the British people, and the country was in a state of Post-War Depression. The language used by the poet also reinforces this attitude. Initially, we are confronted by the monotonous name, ‘Mr Bleaney’, which itself sounds very lacklustre and represents an uninteresting man who led a life absent of excitement. The use of rhyming couplets in an ABAB format symbolises the repetitious nature of Mr Bleaney’s life and how it will always remain unchanging, a pattern that he couldn’t escape. Another technique used by Larkin to show Mr Bleaney’s lifestyle is the use of enjambment at the beginning and end of each stanza, signifying the continuous downward spiral that Mr Bleaney was unable to escape; a cycle that the persona may have also have entered.

Every description of the room reinforces the idea that Mr Bleaney led a lonely and unhappy life such as the curtains that were ‘thin and frayed’ and the strip of ‘littered’ building land. The ‘sixty-watt bulb’ reference shows us that his existence was dull and dim, lacking any power or vitality. The casual, ‘so it happens’ in the second line of the third stanza, is demonstrating how the speaker has resigned themselves to living this empty life but also that they didn’t have a choice in the matter which makes the reader wonder whether Mr Bleaney had a choice in regards to his loneliness or whether he was just cast out and forgotten. It is confirmed that the speaker is living the ghost of Mr Bleaney’s life when he says that he ‘knows his habits’ and ‘his preference for sauce to gravy’. The notion that he is but a memory is repeated when the speaker talks of the ‘Frinton folk who put him up for summer holidays’. The poet’s use of ‘put him up’ gives us the feeling that Mr Bleaney was only there out of convenience or that the people in mention only gave him a place to stay out of pity rather than friendship.

Throughout the poem there are connotations of death such as ‘the whole time he was at the Bodies’. The capitalisation of ‘Bodies’ could represent that it is a place but also has a noticeable connection to death, leading us to believe that Mr. Bleaney is indeed deceased. In addition in the final stanza, whilst in reality ‘one hired box’ means the room that he rents, it could also be a reference to the coffin that Mr Bleaney left in.

In the final line, the concluding ‘I don’t know’ sounds weary and tired as though the persona is unsure as to whether he deserves any better than Mr Bleaney. The constant references to loneliness in this poem make the reader wonder how self-worth is evaluated, be it based on friendship or material possessions, both of which Mr Bleaney lacks.

On the other hand, in the poem ‘Dockery and Son’, the main theme is one of bitterness and jealousy. The title reminds us of a family firm, more specifically a funeral parlour which gives us the expectation that this will be a melancholic piece. ‘Dockery was junior to you, wasn’t he’, shows that Dockery was younger than the speaker and so you can assume he is further away from death, something Larkin was hyper aware of. This is soon followed by ‘death-suited’, showing that perhaps this initial part of the poem is set at a funeral. Straight after however, the speaker’s train of thought is en-dashed to show that it has been cut off. It symbolises him cutting off and his lack of interest in listening to the Dean of the college. The poem now enters its second stage where the speaker seems to be reminiscing over their university years but also reflecting on their life up to the present day. ‘He tries the door’ of where he previously lived and the enjambment onto the next line, ‘locked’ shows that his past life is but a memory. However, Dockery still has that connection to the university through his son whereas the speaker does not.

The quote, ‘the lawn spreads dazzlingly wide’ shows that the university is a grand place, and that the persona is almost insignificant in comparison to it. Again, this could be comparative to Larkin’s own life reflecting on his time at Oxford University. ‘But Dockery, good lord’, shows the reader that he is shocked, almost bordering on outrage, that Dockery has a son and he does not. This leads him to question how much he knew about his contemporaries and reinforces the idea that he no longer has any connection to university which he so clearly adored, not even through his old friends.

The ‘furnace-glares of Sheffield’ are a dramatic contrast to the ‘dazzling lawns’ of the university and represent what reality is like for him and his jealousy of Dockery’s son. The ‘joined and parting lines’ of the railway track are a metaphor for his life and relationships; they could have been together, but they went their separate ways. When listing all of the things he does not possess, he first lists ‘no son’, as this is most important to him because this is what Dockery has that he does not. This jealousy appears to have been nonexistent until he was made aware of what he lacked during his meeting with the Dean. Possibly, this could hint towards the selfish, bitter and resentful nature of the speaker as he now realises ‘how much had gone of life’. The persona used by the poet then goes on to try and justify why Dockery has a son, claiming that ‘he must have taken stock of what he wanted’. However, this is dismissed when he admits that you live the life you were given and it was not a calculating move on Dockery’s part.

‘Why did he think adding meant increase? To me it was dilution’, stems directly from Larkin’s own beliefs, that a wife and children would only stifle his creativity. By calling them ‘innate assumptions’, it almost seems as though he is making excuses for how he has lived his life and all of the opportunities he has missed when in reality his life is merely a consequence of his actions.

Based off of the poems that I have studied, I believe that Philip Larkin is indeed a poet of loneliness and loss. Despite having other themes featured throughout his works, the underpinning theme is that of loneliness.