Philip Larkin Had Produced Only 2 Works a Year : Poet Who Declined Laureateship Dies

Philip Larkin, who declined the post of poet laureate because of his sporadic output even though he was hailed by peers as one of Britain’s greatest poets, died today at age 63.

Larkin was admitted to Nuffield Hospital in Hull on Friday night and died at 1:30 a.m. today, a hospital spokeswoman said.

He had earlier been in an intensive care unit in Hull Royal Infirmary, where he was admitted in the summer, suffering from breathing difficulties.

The hospital declined to state the cause of death. A spokeswoman for Larkin’s London publisher, Faber & Faber, said only that the poet had been ill for some time.

During the last half of his life, the gentle, reclusive Englishman averaged only two verse works a year.

When the post of poet laureate became vacant in May, 1984, a poll of 120 British poets by the Times of London indicated that 30%, a plurality, favored Larkin.

It was later revealed that Larkin had been offered the post but turned it down because he had not published any poetry for 10 years.

Larkin told a journalist that he sometimes dreamed about being poet laureate and would “wake up screaming.”

Of his slim output, he said: “I didn’t give poetry up, it gave me up.”

The tall, bald and bespectacled Larkin was university librarian at Hull, a lively but unfashionable port and industrial city on the northeast English coast.

He never entertained and rarely accepted invitations to dine out. Larkin was sometimes called the “Hermit of Hull” because he lived in a modest suburban house with the blinds down and curtains drawn to protect his books from sunlight.

He laughed during interviews but said he was depressive. He had female friends but never married and professed not to understand why anyone would want to.

“I think they must dislike being alone more than I do,” he said.