Philip Larkin - Collected Poems

13 Sourced Quotes

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Only in books the flat and final happens, Only in dreams we meet and interlock....

Philip Larkin
In times when nothing stood
but worsened, or grew strange,
there was one constant good:
she did not change.

Philip Larkin
One of the sadder things, I think,
Is how our birthdays slowly sink:
Presents and parties disappear,
The cards grow fewer year by year,
Till, when one reaches sixty-five,
How many care we're still alive?

Philip Larkin
Heads in the Women's Ward On pillow after pillow lies The wild white hair and staring eyes; Jaws stand open; necks are stretched With every tendon sharply sketched; A bearded mouth talks silently To someone no one else can see. Sixty years ago they smiled At lover, husband, first-born child. Smiles are for youth. For old age come Death's terror and delirium.

Philip Larkin
The quickest way to start a punch-up between two British literary critics is to ask them what they think of the poems of Sir John Betjeman

Philip Larkin
Since the majority of me Rejects the majority of you, Debating ends forthwith, and we Divide.'' Philip Larkin

Philip Larkin
Selflessness is like waiting in a hospital
In a badly-fitting suit on a cold wet morning.
Selfishness is like listening to good jazz
With drinks for further orders and a huge fire.

Philip Larkin
I wonder love can have already set
In dreams, when we've not met
More times than I can number on one hand.

Philip Larkin
Everyone young going down the long slide
To happiness, endlessly.

Philip Larkin
All the unhurried day / Your mind lay open like a drawer of knives,

Philip Larkin
Things are tougher than we are, just
As earth will always respond
However we mess it about....

Philip Larkin
No one can tear your thread out of himself.
No one can tie you down or set you free.

Philip Larkin
Boys dream of native girls who bring breadfruit,
Whatever they are....

Philip Larkin