Pessimistic Worldview and Existential Nihilism in Philip Larkin’s Poetry
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Abstract
Philip Larkin is one of the most respected men of letters of the twentieth century. A major characteristic of his works was his preoccupation with the overshadowing gloom and despair that resulted from the Second World War and the loss of the golden era of the British Empire. Unsociable by temperament, Larkin was fully alive to the harsh realities of the modernized world that post-War generation was living in. As was natural to his nature, he developed a deep-rooted pessimism and even a nihilistic tendency towards life and human existence in general. This paper attempts to evaluate four of Larkin’s so-called pessimistic poems, namely, “Mr. Bleaney”, “Next, Please”, “Afternoons” and “Days” from his different collections of poetry in order to analyse his preoccupation with death and a general pessimistic attitude towards the worth of human life.
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