Philip Larkin: poet and Coventrian

On platform 1 of Coventry station, a plaque quotes Larkin's "I remember, I remember", in which he describes passing through Coventry on the train and commenting to his companion that he was born there. The rest of the poem, of course, is typical Larkin: listing all the exciting and interesting things from other people's memoirs of childhood and adolescence that didn't happen to him, and concluding of his links to the town that "Nothing, like something, happens anywhere." Nonetheless, Coventry is rightly proud of the connection.

  © Copyright Christopher Hilton and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence .

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