The North Ship is the debut collection of poems by Philip Larkin (1922–1985), published in 1945 by Reginald A. Caton's Fortune Press. Caton did not pay his writers and expected them to buy a certain number of copies themselves. A similar arrangement had been used in 1934 by Dylan Thomas for his first collection.
Some of the poems were composed while Larkin was an undergraduate at the University of Oxford, but the bulk were written in the period 1943 to 1944 when he was running the public library in Wellington, Shropshire, and writing his second novel A Girl in Winter.
The volume was published again, in 1966, by Faber and Faber Limited. In the 1945 version there are 31 items, numbered with Roman numerals. The last of these, "The North Ship" is a set of five poems tracking a ship's northward progress. Of the 30 single poems, only seven have titles. In the 1966 reissue an extra poem, "Waiting for breakfast, while she brushed her hair" was added at the end. This edition is still in print.
The North Ship constitutes the first part of the 2003 edition of Larkin's Collected Poems.
Content The book contains 32 poems: Ellipsis (...) indicates first line of an untitled poem
SequencePoem title or first line01IAll catches alight...02IIThis was your place of birth, this daytime palace...03IIIThe moon is full tonight... 04IV Dawn05V Conscript06VIKick up the fire, and let the flames break loose... 07VIIThe horns of the morning... 08VIII Winter09IXClimbing the hill within the deafening wind... 10XWithin the dream you said... 11XI Night-Music 12XIILike the train's beat... 13XIIII put my mouth... 14XIV Nursery Tale 15XV The Dancer 16XVIThe bottle is drunk out by one... 17XVIITo write one song, I said... 18XVIIIIf grief could burn out... 19XIX Ugly Sister 20XXI see a girl dragged by the wrists... 21XXII dreamed of an out-thrust arm of land... 22XXIIOne man walking a deserted platform... 23XXIIIIf hands could free you, heart... 24XXIVLove, we must part now: do not let it be... 25XXVMorning has spread again...26XXVIThis is the first thing...27XXVIIHeaviest of flowers, the head... 28XXVIIIIs it for now or for always... 29XXIXPour away that youth...30XXXSo through that unripe day you bore your head... 31XXXIThe North ShipLegend Songs 65° N 70° N Fortunetelling 75° N Blizzard Above 80° N32XXXIIWaiting for breakfast, while she brushed her hair...
See also
List of poems by Philip Larkin – a complete list of all the known poems, both published and unpublished, and their date of composition
References