The wonderful Poetry Archive, a collection of audio recordings of poets reading their own work, has recently been updated with some Philip Larkin - The Whitsun Weddings, Mr. Bleaney and The Trees (here). The Whitsun Weddings was recently voted the 'nation's favorite poem' and Larkin their favorite poet. Here, I duly - proudly - announce myself as one of the great, teeming, sweaty, brutish mass.
I've now heard six recordings of Larkin reading his poetry (the three now up at the archive; Aubade, Love Songs in Age and, last year on radio 3, a live recording of The Whitsun Weddings). Such is Larkin's voice and style that the recordings resonate through each rereading of the poems. As the archive posits in their introduction, "Hearing a poet reading his or her work remains uniquely illuminating. It helps us to understand the work as well as helping us to enjoy it." Yes, always illuminating. But no, not necessarily enjoyable. Thankfully, with these recordings it is both.
Larkin rarely gave readings. Some have postulated it was because of his stammer, but in an interview with the Paris Review*, he gave the decision some intellectual justification:
"Hearing a poem, as opposed to reading it on the page, means you miss so much- the shape, the punctuation, the italics, even knowing how far you are from the end. Reading it on the page means you can go your own pace, taking it in properly; hearing it means you're dragged along at the speaker's own rate, missing things, not taking it in, confusing there and their and things like that..."
First: Yes, but only when the poem is previously unread. So read the poems first. Second: After listening, read them again. That I agree with Larkin does not mean I will stop reading, - or, when I've remembered a poem enough to only half forget it, "reciting" - Larkin's work at those too close to me to leave. As you can't prevent this, perhaps best to have the poems in mind. It will, as Larkin's work is apt to do in so many other areas, ease your pain.
*Page 8.
I've now heard six recordings of Larkin reading his poetry (the three now up at the archive; Aubade, Love Songs in Age and, last year on radio 3, a live recording of The Whitsun Weddings). Such is Larkin's voice and style that the recordings resonate through each rereading of the poems. As the archive posits in their introduction, "Hearing a poet reading his or her work remains uniquely illuminating. It helps us to understand the work as well as helping us to enjoy it." Yes, always illuminating. But no, not necessarily enjoyable. Thankfully, with these recordings it is both.
Larkin rarely gave readings. Some have postulated it was because of his stammer, but in an interview with the Paris Review*, he gave the decision some intellectual justification:
"Hearing a poem, as opposed to reading it on the page, means you miss so much- the shape, the punctuation, the italics, even knowing how far you are from the end. Reading it on the page means you can go your own pace, taking it in properly; hearing it means you're dragged along at the speaker's own rate, missing things, not taking it in, confusing there and their and things like that..."
First: Yes, but only when the poem is previously unread. So read the poems first. Second: After listening, read them again. That I agree with Larkin does not mean I will stop reading, - or, when I've remembered a poem enough to only half forget it, "reciting" - Larkin's work at those too close to me to leave. As you can't prevent this, perhaps best to have the poems in mind. It will, as Larkin's work is apt to do in so many other areas, ease your pain.
*Page 8.
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