How to write like Phillip Larkin…

OK, I’ll come clean and admit it – I like poetry….I really do.

That’s perhaps not an earth-shattering revelation for a middle-aged male, but for a teenager trying desperately to be cool it wasn’t really the done thing. Oh, and my favourite poet was Philip Larkin, a bald, bespectacled, rather morose-looking Hull librarian….like I said, not cool.

However, time and distance lend perspective and now, as a copywriter, I can revel in his genius and try to pass on some of his linguistic tricks. To be honest, they aren’t much use when it comes to writing website copy, which prizes brevity and simplicity, but it’s nice to aspire to something grander.

Three examples of Larkin’s brilliant writing

1. Turn similes around

“My promises meet and lock and race like rivers” (promises = like rivers)

A simile is defined as the comparison of two unlike things – it is one of the most common devices used in poetry; e.g. Byron’s famous verse, “She walks in beauty like the night…”

By turning around the simile, it becomes far more powerful; e.g. Larkin’s line could read “my promises are like rivers which meet and lock and race”, but that signposts the simile, making it far less striking – far better to leave the ‘like’ to the end.

2. Use a noun as verb

“that padlocked cube of light” (padlock = noun)

3. Use an adjective as verb

“Ambered in memory from mythology” (amber = verb)