Philip Larkin (1922-1986) was one of England's leading poets to emerge after World War II.

Philip Larkin was born August 9, 1922, the son of Sydney and Eva Emily Larkin. He spent his early years in Coventry, an industrial city in central England (heavily bombed during World War II). Larkin grew up during the 1930s and 1940s, which were marked by severe economic depression followed by the war. He attended the King Henry VIII School in Coventry, then went on to Oxford, from which he graduated in 1943 while the war was still in progress. A sensitive and introspective youth, his pre-university memories were of loneliness and passivity. His poem "I Remember, I Remember" recaptured the coldness of Larkin's Coventry: "'I suppose it's not the place's fault,' I said./ 'Nothing, like something, happens anywhere.'"

At Oxford, however, things began to look up. Larkin formed strong friendships with other young...