Monday, October 04, 2010

Here's a couple of verses by that adopted son of Kingston upon Hull, Mr. Philip Larkin. For some reason they haven't yet made it into any collection of his works -

Prison for the strikers
Bring back the cat*
Kick out the niggers
What about that?
Chorus: niggers, niggers ...(ad nauseam)

Trade with the empire
Ban the obscene,
Lock up the commies -
God save the Queen!
Chorus: commies, commies ... (ad nauseam)

There's more of the same, privately circulated to those who appreciated such sentiments.
Not surprisingly Thatcher wanted to appoint Larkin Poet Laureate.
Somewhat surprisingly someone decided to celebrate Hull's connection to this crypto-fascist rather than disown him. This was done by dotting fibreglass models of toads about the place. I'm not sure how much public identification with Larkin was made by most of our citizens. The toads were very popular, especially with kids. Also with vandals, though no-one thought to paint swastikas on them.

*The cat was a whip used on men convicted of violent crimes, sentencing to which was an addition to prison sentences. I believe it was still in use in my lifetime.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very good - you don't like Larkin. Now try and write a poem as good as 'Church Going' or tell us where there's fascism hidden in it.

Jemmy Hope said...

I don't write poetry; but even if I did, and it was the worst poetry in the world - how would that absolve Larkin of his fascism?
by the way, I called him a crypto-fascist, which is what some conservative party supporters are.