Poetry Against the World

This book brings together two major poets in order to ask how they pitch their poetry against an inhospitable world. It explores how Philip Larkin and Charles Tomlinsonseek to redress an "age of demolition" through their poetry, and how their audiences react to the types of redress they propose.

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Poetry Against the World: Philip Larkin and Charles Tomlinson in Contemporary Britain brings together two major poets, who espouse opposite aesthetic ambitions, yet are both taken as paragons of Englishness, in order to ask how they pitch their poetry against an inhospitable world. This book explores how these two representative poets seek to redress an "age of demolition" through their poetry, and how their audiences react to the types of redress they propose.