News at Eleven: The advantage of such a comprehensive volume

is the possibility of tracing the development of a writer's voice. It is possible to hear in his [Philip Larkin's] poem, "On Being Twenty-six" the tone of world-weariness an older Larkin would make into an art form, looking back on "the slag/Of burnt-out childhood" with his familiar tone of regret laced with misanthropy: "Life, you aren't a god, you're a bloody old sod."

from The Economist: Philip Larkin: Library book

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