Collected Poems (Larkin)

Collected Poems is the title of a posthumous collection of Philip Larkin's poetry edited by Anthony Thwaite and published by Faber and Faber. He released two notably different editions in 1988 and 2003, the first of which also includes previously unpublished work. Both editions include the contents of Larkin's collections The North Ship, The Less Deceived, The Whitsun Weddings and High Windows, plus other material.

Collected Poems
First edition (1988)
AuthorPhilip Larkin
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
GenrePoetry
PublisherFaber and Faber
Publication date
1988, 2003
Pages330 / 240
ISBN978-0-571-21654-3
OCLC51804524

History

For the 1988 edition, editor Anthony Thwaite included all of Philip Larkin's published poetry as well as unpublished and incomplete work. Thwaite organized the poems in chronological order, meaning that poems from Larkin's four collections, his uncollected poems, and his unpublished work are interspersed throughout according to their date of composition. The book is divided into two sections. The first section includes 61 unpublished poems written from 1946-83 and the second section provides 22 unpublished poems written from 1938-45.[1] Some critics considered the arrangement eccentric.[2][3][4]

In 2003, Thwaite prepared a new edition with a different arrangement. He also corrected typos and added back poem titles. It does not contain the vast volume of unpublished and incomplete work included in the 1988 edition, and orders the published poems in Larkin's preferred arrangement according to his four published collections. Additionally, it includes two appendices containing all the other poems Larkin published.[2][4]

Appendices

The 2003 edition includes Larkin's uncollected poems in two appendices. The first appendix contains poems published in magazines and journals before 1972, but not subsequently collected by Larkin. The contents of the privately printed XX Poems (1951) are deemed to be in this category.

Appendix I: Uncollected Poems 1940-1972

[Ellipsis (...) indicates first line of an untitled poem]
  • Ultimatum
  • Story
  • A Writer
  • May Weather
  • Observation
  • Disintegration
  • Mythological Introduction
  • A Stone Church Damaged by a Bomb
  • Femmes Damnées
  • Plymouth
  • Portrait
  • The Dedicated
  • Modesties
  • Fiction and the Reading Public
  • Oils (originally the first part of "Two Portraits of Sex")
  • Who called love conquering...
  • Since the majority of me...
  • Arrival
  • Tops
  • Success Story
  • Continuing to Live
  • Pigeons
  • Breadfruit
  • Love
  • When the Russian tanks roll westward...
  • How
  • Heads in the Women's Ward

Appendix II: Uncollected Poems 1974-1984

The second appendix contains those poems published after High Windows, Larkin's final volume.

  • The Life with a Hole in it
  • Bridge for the Living
  • Aubade
  • 1952-1977
  • New eyes each year...
  • The Mower
  • Dear CHARLES, My Muse, asleep or dead...
  • By day, a lifted study-storehouse...
  • Party Politics

See also

References
  1. Archie., Burnett (2012). The complete poems. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 9780374126964. OCLC 780439729.
  2. Gudas, Eric (2005). "Review: Collected Poems – Philip Larkin" (PDF). The Bloomsbury Review. 25 (1). Retrieved September 20, 2016.
  3. Banville, John (25 January 2012). "The Complete Poems by Philip Larkin, edited by Archie Burnett - review". The Guardian. Retrieved September 20, 2016.
  4. Updike, John (July 26, 2004). "Twice Collected: The well-cared-for poems of Philip Larkin". The New Yorker. Retrieved September 20, 2016.
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