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Title: the flowers of unhappiness
Review: Larkin hits home again and again in these pages. His best poems combine an emotional conveyance as clear as water with an effortless and unobtrusive perfection of form. Some of them read like direct conversation. He could be witty or morbid, or both at once. Above all his gift was for memorableness, something that can only be accomplished by striking deep and hard.The arrangement of the volume is right: we are first presented with the poems, starting in 1946, that (in Mr. Thwait's judgment) begin to showcase Larkin's unique voice. A small set of earlier poems is at the back, mostly of historical value (though a few are gems, e.g: "This is the first thing/I have understood:/Time is the echo of an axe/Within a wood.")If you like poetry with a punch, absorb this volume.
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