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Joy Is for the simple or the great to feel, Neither of which we are.

Philip Larkin

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Philip Larkin
Age: 63 †
Born: 1922
Born: August 9
Died: 1985
Died: December 2
Critic
Journalist
Librarian
Music Critic
Music Journalist
Novelist
Poet
Writer
Coventry
England
UK
Philip Arthur Larkin
Neither
Joy
Simple
Feel
Feels
Great

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The breath that sharpens life is life itself.
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The only way to eliminate unemployment is to eliminate unemployment benefits.
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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?
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Uncontradicting solitude Supports me on its giant palm And like a sea-anemone Or simple snail, there cautiously Unfolds, emerges, what I am.
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I am awakened each dawn Increasingly to fear.
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I never think of poetry or the poetry scene, only separate poems written by individuals.
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What are days for? Days are where we live.
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SEX is designed for people who like overcoming obstacles.
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As a child, I thought I hated everybody, but when I grew up I realized it was just children I didn't like.
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But, o, photography! as no art is,Faithful and disappointing! That recordsDull days as dull, and hold-it smiles as frauds,And will not censor blemishes,Like washing-lines, and Hall's-Distemper boards
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Beneath it all, desire of oblivion runs: Despite the artful tensions of the calendar, The life insurance, the tabled fertility rites, The costly aversion of the eyes from death- Beneath it all, desire of oblivion runs.
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One of the great criticisms of poets of the past is that they said one thing and did another.
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Give me a thrill, says the reader, Give me a kick I don't care how you succeed, or What subject you pick.
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A writer once said to me, If you ever go to America, go either to the East Coast or the West Coast: The rest is a desert full of bigots. That's what I think I'd like . . . a version of pastoral.
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Many famous feet have trod Sublunary paths, and famous hands have weighed The strength they have against the strength they need And famous lips interrogated God Concerning franchise in eternity.
Philip Larkin
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I think we got much better poetry when it was all regarded as sinful or subversive, and you had to hide it under the cushion when somebody came in.
Philip Larkin
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One of the quainter quirks of life is that we shall never know who dies on the dame day as we do ourselves.
Philip Larkin
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On me your voice falls as they say love should, Like an enormous yes.
Philip Larkin
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To start at a new place is always to feel incompetent & unwanted.
Philip Larkin
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Here no elsewhere underwrites my existence.
Philip Larkin