Editing Philip Larkin (section)

===Mature works===
[[File:William Butler Yeat by George Charles Beresford.jpg|upright|right|thumb|[[William Butler Yeats]], whose poetry was an influence on Larkin in the mid-1940s|alt=A posed black and white photograph of Yeats. He is wearing smart clothes and spectacles, while his hair looks a bit tousled]]
It was during Larkin's five years in [[Belfast]] that he reached maturity as a poet.<ref>Bradford 2005, p. 103.</ref> The bulk of his next published collection of poems, ''[[The Less Deceived]]'' (1955), was written there, though eight of the twenty-nine poems included were from the late 1940s. This period also saw Larkin make his final attempts at writing prose fiction, and he gave extensive help to Kingsley Amis with ''[[Lucky Jim]]'', which was Amis's first published novel. In October 1954 an article in ''[[The Spectator]]'' made the first use of the title [[The Movement (literature)|The Movement]] to describe the dominant trend in British post-war literature.<ref>Motion 1993, p. 242.</ref> Poems by Larkin were included in a 1953 [[International PEN|PEN]] Anthology that also featured poems by Amis and [[Robert Conquest]], and Larkin was seen to be a part of this grouping.<ref>Motion 1993, p. 243.</ref> In 1951, Larkin compiled a collection called ''XX Poems'' which he had privately printed in a run of just 100 copies. Many of the poems in it subsequently appeared in his next published volume.<ref name="PL Society"/> <!-- a better reference from Motion should be added here -->

In November 1955, ''The Less Deceived'', was published by the Marvell Press, an independent company in [[Hessle]] near Hull (dated October). At first the volume attracted little attention, but in December it was included in ''[[The Times]]''{{'}} list of ''Books of the Year''.<ref name="motion269">Motion 1993, p. 269.</ref> From this point, the book's reputation spread and sales blossomed throughout 1956 and 1957. During his first five years in Hull, the pressures of work slowed Larkin's output to an average of just two-and-a-half poems a year, but this period saw the writing of some of his best-known poems, such as "[[An Arundel Tomb]]", "[[The Whitsun Weddings]]" and "Here".<ref>{{cite book
 |first= Philip
 |last=Larkin
 |title=Collected Poems
 |year=1988
 |pages= 110–11, 114–5, 136–7}}
</ref>

In 1963, Faber and Faber reissued ''Jill'', with the addition of a long introduction by Larkin that included much information about his time at [[University of Oxford|Oxford University]] and his friendship with Kingsley Amis. This acted as a prelude to the publication the following year of ''[[The Whitsun Weddings]]'', the volume which cemented his reputation; a Fellowship of the [[Royal Society of Literature]] was granted to Larkin almost immediately. In the years that followed, Larkin wrote several of his most best-known poems, followed in the 1970s by a series of longer and more sober poems, including "The Building" and "The Old Fools".<ref>{{cite book
 |first= Philip
 |last=Larkin
 |title=Collected Poems
 |year=1988
 |pages= 191–3, 196–7, 208–9}}
</ref> 

All of these appeared in Larkin's final collection, ''[[High Windows]]'', which was published in June 1974. Its more direct use of language meant that it did not meet with uniform praise; nonetheless it sold over twenty thousand copies in its first year alone. For some critics it represents a falling-off from his previous two books,<ref>Swarbrick 1995, pp. 122–23.</ref> yet it contains a number of his much-loved pieces, including "[[This Be The Verse]]" and "The Explosion", as well as the [[High Windows (poem)|title poem]]. "Annus Mirabilis" (Year of Wonder), also from that volume, contains the frequently quoted observation that sexual intercourse began in 1963, which the narrator claims was "rather late for me". Bradford, prompted by comments in Maeve Brennan's memoir, suggests that the poem commemorates Larkin's relationship with Brennan moving from the romantic to the sexual.<ref>Bradford 2005, p. 212.</ref>

Later in 1974 he started work on his final major published poem, "Aubade". It was completed in 1977 and published in 23 December issue of ''[[The Times Literary Supplement]]''.<ref>Motion 1993, p. 468.</ref> After "Aubade" Larkin wrote only one poem that has attracted close critical attention, the posthumously published and intensely personal "Love Again".<ref>Bradford 2005, pp. 249–251.</ref>