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Review, The

Nos. 29-30

Spring-Summer 1972

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Philip Larkin

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The State of Poetry - A Symposium

I find it difficult to say anything in reply to your questions, because I never think of poetry or the poetry scene, only separate poems written by individuals. These, to the best of my admittedly-sketchy knowledge, prompt the reflection that the most encouraging features of the last decade have been the good poems, and the most discouraging etc., the bad poems, and that one hopes in the next decade that there will be more good and less bad ones. But this isn't very helpful. I think that the contemporary poetry scene is rather like the thirties—vernacular, political and anti-establishment (of course, there are exceptions): on the whole, however, I find this encouraging. Whether one finds the recent emphasis on violence and insanity discouraging depends, I suppose, on what your view of poetry is. If these are genuinely what a writer finds poetic, then of course he must deal with them. For some, I fear, they have become simply fashionable properties.

As regards the next decade, I hope a really big talent will arise that will make the business of reading poetry exciting once more.

poetrymagazines' note: Copyrighted work reproduced with kind permission by The Society of Authors as the Literary Representative of the Estate of Philip Larkin.

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