Philip Larkin (109 page)

The view of the Humber estuary from the train inspired Larkin’s lines ‘Where sky and Lincolnshire and water meet’ (‘The Whitsun Weddings’), and ‘the widening river’s slow presence, / The piled gold clouds, the shining gullmarked mud’ (‘Here’).

Inside the poet’s head: X-ray, 19 July 1969. Larkin commissioned a number of X-rays during his various health scares.

Spurn Point, with remains of wartime defences: the ‘beach / Of shapes and shingle’ in ‘Here’.

The final page of ‘Here’ in Workbook 6. On the tenth page of drafting Larkin wrote out a near immaculate version of the first three stanzas. Continuing on to this eleventh page he was so sure of his corrections that he did not make a fair copy of the final stanza, leaving the remainder of the page blank. Before the poem was published he changed ‘unforced’ to ‘unfenced’.

The solitary bachelor hesitating on the brink of conformity and marriage, in ‘The shame of evening trousers, evening tie’ (‘The Dance’, 1963–4).

Larkin’s pornography.
Left
: a characteristic ‘nude study’ of the model Sophia Dawn by the founder of
Kamera
magazine, Harrison Marks.
Right
: a naughty schoolgirl photograph.

Philip and Monica in the flat at 32 Pearson Park. Larkin used the imagery of his later poem ‘The Card-Players’ in looking forward to a visit from Monica in 1967: ‘We shall be two Hogspewers together’.

The view from the Pearson Park flat remained unaltered from October 1956, when he moved in, until June 1974, when he left for Newland Park.

‘
Veronica’, Larkin’s wicker rabbit, sat beside his chair during his interview with Betjeman in the BBC
Monitor
television feature of 1964.

The cube of light which dominates ‘Stage 2’ of the Brynmor Jones Library, opened in 1969. Larkin wrote to his mother: ‘There are so many new members of staff that I feel like a stranger in my own building.’

Librarian and Secretary: Betty and Philip in 1972. ‘I’d be lost without her.’

Extract from a letter to Betty Mackereth, 18 January 1969. He describes a stop-over in Bawtry on his drive down from Hull and encloses documents for Betty to type. At the end he stipples a Texas library stamp, anticipating the time when his papers might be acquired by the Harry Ransom Center.