But when the August weather breaks
And rains begin, and brittle frost
Sharpens the bird-abandoned air,
Her worried summer look is lost,

And I her son, though summer-born
And summer-loving, none the less
Am easier when the leaves are gone
Too often summer days appear
Emblems of perfect happiness
I can't confront: I must await
A time less bold, less rich, less clear:
An autumn more appropriate.

~ Philip Larkin

It was the writer Thomas Hardy that inspired English poet Philip Larkin to form his own style of poetry.  It is said that in 1946, the Oxford graduate, “discovered the poetry of Thomas Hardy and became a great admirer of his poetry, learning from Hardy how to make the commonplace and often dreary details of his life the basis for extremely tough, unsparing, and memorable poems.”

In the 1950s, Larkin became a leading voice of “The Movement” in poetry – a group of English poets that rejected the common neo-Romantic, or overly sentimental writing style of poets such as Yeats.  Instead, Larkin spoke of deeply personal feelings, but without any self-pity or sentimentality. 

Larkin is also remembered for his deep love of American Jazz music, a genre of which he became a published critic.  However, despite his literary success, Larkin was a recluse and remained a librarian in a small English town for most of his life.

Photo: Painting by Gustave Caillebotte (French 1848–1894).