Abstract:
Existentialism became popular in the twentieth
century, and it captured virtually every form of human thought
and expression, including the novel, the theatre, poetry, art and
theology. Though this philosophy had no specific system or sets
of systems, yet it got a wide range of responses due to
contemporary social circumstances. Individuals of the 20th
century had a problematic existence with anguish, uncertainty,
fear, alienation and despair because of different negative
socio-political and cultural events that affected every aspect of
life in Europe. Philip Larkin belonged to the same century and
most of his poems present the typical problems of existence of
an individual in the contemporary society. With an aim of
better understanding of the poetry of Philip Larkin this paper
explores how the poet, while dealing with the themes of his
poetry, reflects the mood and ideas of existentialist
philosophers. Since philosophy is closely connected with
literature, as with other branches of knowledge, this study may
help the readers understand Larkin’s poetry from a new
perspective