In the following essay, Whalen identifies Imagist qualities in the poetry of Philip Larkin.

SOURCE: "Philip Larkin's Imagist Bias: His Poetry of Observation," in Critical Quarterly, Vol. 23, No. 2, Summer, 1981, pp. 29-46.

Larkin's use of traditional poetic forms and his openly expressed contempt for Modernism have gained for him a reputation as a relatively provincial poet. Many see his admiration for such minor poets as John Betjeman, for instance, as being in step with the narrow taste he exhibits in the selections which make up his edition of The Oxford Book of Twentieth-Century Verse (1973). Evaluating the technical cleverness of Modernist jazz musicians, Larkin has remarked that 'I dislike such things not because they are new, but because they are irresponsible exploitations of technique in contradiction of life as we know it. This is my essential criticism of modernism, whether perpetuated by Parker, Pound or Picasso: it helps us neither...