Larkin, Philip 1922–

Larkin is a British poet, novelist, and essayist. The subject of his poetry is his personal experience; the setting that of common provincial life. Larkin has consistently rejected what he feels to be the obscure symbolism of contemporary poetry and its focus on aesthetic problems. His concerns are humanistic, and a recurrent theme is man's relationship to nature. (See also CLC, Vols. 3, 5, 8, 9, 13, and Contemporary Authors, Vols. 5-8, rev. ed.)