Philip Larkin: The Art of Poetry (The Paris Review Interviews, Vol. 2)
Philip Larkin
Someone contacted me last week about a manuscript, then mentioned poems. I admit, I know little about poetry. I look for imagery and sensual detail --which may or may not be the reason d'être of poetry these days. And story, particularly love stories. Anne Carson gets me every time. The Beauty of the Husband.
Perhaps British poet Philip Larkin (1922-1985) would understand:
I've never had "ideas" about poetry. To me it's always been a personal, almost physical release or solution to a complex pressure of needs -- wanting to create, to justify, to praise, to explain, to externalize, depending on the circumstances. And I've never been much interested in other people's poetry -- one reason for writing, of course, is that no one's written what you want to read. Probably my notion of poetry is very simple. Some time ago I agreed to help judge a poetry competition -- you know, the kind where they get about thirty-five thousand entries, and you look at the best few thousand. After a bit I said, Where are all the love poems? And nature poems? And they said, Oh, we threw all those away. I expect they were the ones I should have liked.
The Paris Review interview took place in 1982.
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