List of poems by Philip Larkin

The list of poems by Philip Larkin come mostly from the four volumes of poetry published during his lifetime:

• The North Ship (July 1945)
• The Less Deceived (November 1955, dated October)
• The Whitsun Weddings (February 1964)
• High Windows (June 1974)

Philip Larkin (1922–1985) also published other poems. They, along with the contents of the four published collections, are included in the 2003 edition of his Collected Poems in two appendices. The previous 1988 edition contains everything that appears in the 2003 edition and additionally includes all the known mature poems that he did not publish during his lifetime, plus an appendix of early work. To help differentiate between these published and unpublished poems in our table all poems that appear in the 2003 edition's appendices are listed as Collected Poems 2003; of course, they also appear in the 1988 volume.

Since 1988 many other unpublished, and as yet uncollected, poems have come to light. Some of these poems have now been included in "The Complete Poems by Philip Larkin," edited by Archie Burnett.

List of poems

The following is the list of 244 poems attributed to Philip Larkin. Untitled poems are identified by their first lines and marked with an ellipsis. Completion dates are in the YYYY-MM-DD format, and are tagged "<small>(best known date)</small>" if the date is not definitive.

Footnotes

1. "Dry-point" written as second part of "Two Portraits about Sex"
2. "Oils" written as first part of "Two Portraits about Sex"
3. "Waiting for breakfast while she brushed her hair..." only published in the 1966 Faber and Faber reissue
4. "We met at the end of the party..." only published in issue 14 of The Larkin Society's journal About Larkin

References