Includes bibliographical references (pages 229-232) and index.
Introduction: raising the questions -- Literature, language, plainness, and the plain style traditions -- Larkin in context -- Rhetorical strategies I -- Rhetorical strategies II -- Themes -- Conclusion: Larkin's own blend.
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Larkin's poems are often regarded as falling somewhere between the traditional "plain" and the more contemporary "postmodern" categories. This study undertakes a comprehensive linguistic and historical study of the plain style tradition in poetry, its relationship with so-called "difficult" poetry, and its particular realization in the cultural and historical context of 20th-century Britain. The author examines the nature of poetry as a type of discourse, the elements of, and factors in, the development of literary styles, a close rhetorical examination of Larkin's poems within the described poetic frameworks, and his position in the British 20th-century poetic canon.