Philip Larkin: A Manuscript Study

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This thesis will argue for the importance of the poetry which Philip Larkin wrote during the last years of his life (after the publication of his fourth collection High Windows in 1974 until his death in 1985). It will do so through a manuscript, correspondence, journalistic and comparative study. These resources will be examined in terms of how they expose Larkin as suffering from elements of creative block, neurosis and psychological conflict. The dichotomy between life and art, or the dedicated artist detaching himself from the influences of the outside world, proved impossible to maintain during this final period. Significant experiences in Larkin's youth, including the considerable influence of his parents Sydney and Eva, meant that he internalised a blocked concept of self-expression and sexuality from an early stage. The later poetry is unique because of its confessional exploration of his psychological state, in that it confronts issues of death, lust and the eventual collapse of an aesthetic ideal.