Although he rejected the prevailing Neo-Romanticism of the late fortie

Question

Aristotle RC 99 - Passage 56     
   Although he rejected the prevailing Neo-Romanticism of the late forties and early fifties, Philip Larkin was no admirer of modernism. Like many in the English middle-class, for example, he thought Picasso a fake, and believed that an artist should ―make a horse look like a horse.

When some disparaged his work as ―limited and ―commonplace, Larkin replied, ―I‘d like to know what dragon-infested world these lads live in to make them so free with the word  commonplace‘.  His irritation stemmed from his view that poetry ―was an act of sanity, of seeing things as they are.‖ He thought that the connection between poetry and the reading public, forged in the 19th century by such poets as Kipling, Housman and Brooke, had by the mid-20th century been destroyed by the growing unintelligibility of English poetry to the general reader. He attributed this in part to the emergence of English literature (along with the other arts) as an academic subject, demanding poetry that required elucidation.

He saw no such need to explain his own work. When asked to expand on The Whitsun Weddings, he remarked that the intent of each poem was clear enough in itself, and he would only add that ―the poems had been written in or near Hull, Yorkshire, with a succession of 2B pencils during the years 1955 to 1963. Influenced by the poetry of Thomas Hardy, he made the mundane details of his life the basis for tough, unsparing, memorable poems that rejected the Victorian belief in a benevolent God, exploring life with a post-religious stoicism. The poems themselves are deceptively simple. Through the details of advertisements, train-stations, and provincial towns, they transform into something elevated and strangely beautiful the central issues of ordinary life in the language of ordinary speech. His underlying themes of love, solitude, and mortality express intense personal emotion while they strictly avoid sentimentality or self-pity, using rough-hewn rhythms and colloquial diction with an extraordinary variety of meters and stanzaic forms. These qualities were quickly identified, if not always appreciated, by reviewers. As the critic Donald Hall put it (only half-admiringly), ―   At Grass‘ is the best horse picture ever painted. Some critics went so far as to call him anti-social. In an interview, Larkin questioned why he was described a melancholy man, protesting— self-deprecatingly—that he was actually ―rather funny. Neither of these adjectives reflect the beauty of his poetry that is the source of a deep, abiding pleasure.

Philip Larkin earned a living as a librarian until his death of cancer in 1985. His first poem was published in 1940, but he earned his reputation as one of England‘s finest poets with the publication of The Less Deceived in 1955, which was subscribed to by almost all recognized young English poets: Amis, Bergonzi, Boyars, Brownjohn, Conquest, Davie, Enright, Hamburger, Hill, Jennings, MacBeth, Murphy, Thwaite, Tomlinson, and Wain. His status was confirmed with the release in 1963 of The Whitsun Weddings (the title poem of which may be the finest in all his work), and again with High Windows in 1974. The mood of each of these thin volumes changed considerably from poem to poem; but, for all their range, they were clearly the products of a singular and accomplished poetic sensibility.   1 
1.  The author quotes Larkin as saying ―I‘d like to know what dragon-infested world these lads live in to make them so free with the word commonplace in highlighted text in order to:

A. show how Larkin dismissed critics of his work by pointing out their personal failings.
B. show how Larkin mocked his critics for implying that everyday experience must be trivial.
C. suggest that Larkin‘s critics attacked his work to make their own lives seem more glamorous.
D. show that Larkin did not believe that the events he wrote about were actually common.
E. show how deeply saddened Larkin was at the criticism of his work

ans=B 
 2 
2.  The author‘s primary concern in this passage is to:

A. show that Larkin‘s verse was informed by his views on poetry.
B. describe how Larkin created verse of lasting value based on ordinary events.
C. compare schools of poetry from the 19th and 20th centuries.
D. explain how the general reader became alienated from English poetry by the mid-20th century.
E. criticise Larking for writing fanciful and esoteric poetry

ANS=B 
 3 
3.  The author cites the description of one of Larkin‘s poems by one of his critics as ―the best horse picture ever painted.‖ This quotation serves several purposes, including to demonstrate: 
I. that critics considered Larkin‘s poetry poor and funny.
II. the commonplace subject matter of Larkin‘s work.
III. that critics often blurred Larkin‘s poetry with Larkin‘s views.

A. I only
B. I and II only
C. II and III only
D. II only
E. I, II and III

ANS=D 
 4 
4.  Based on the information provided in the passage, we can assume that Larkin would be LEAST likely to write a poem taking as its subject:

A. a devout song of praise to God.
B. the working day of a London businessman.
C. the death in war of an upper-class academic.
D. a current, happy love affair.
E. a day in the life of a schoolboy

ANS=A

vocabulary help

verse  = A poem — especially one that rhymes — is called verse.
 melancholy  = Melancholy is beyond sad: as a noun or an adjective, it's a word for the gloomiest of spirits.
 stoicism  = If you rarely show emotion or feeling, that’s stoicism. Your stoicism helps you endure physical or emotional discomfort without complaint, a helpful trait for long car trips with annoying people.
 mundane  = An ordinary, unexciting thing can be called mundane: "Superman hid his heroic feats by posing as his mundane alter ego, Clark
 Kent."
 sanity  = Sanity is the opposite of insanity. When you have sanity, you're mentally healthy and not acting crazy.

PUNEETSCHDV · Answer

1. The author quotes Larkin as saying ―I‘d like to know what dragon-infested
world these lads live in to make them so free with the word
‗commonplace‘‖ in lines 6-7 in order to:
A. show how Larkin dismissed critics of his work by pointing out their
personal failings. ( Larkin did not mention personal feelings)
B. show how Larkin mocked his critics for implying that everyday
experience must be trivial. (Tone is for mockery for sure)
C. suggest that Larkin‘s critics attacked his work to make their own lives
seem more glamorous. (Nothing such implied)
D. show that Larkin did not believe that the events he wrote about were
actually common. (Larkin beliefs are not mentioned or implied)
E. show how deeply saddened Larkin was at the criticism of his work
(larkin replied gracefully and was not saddened)
ans=B
When some disparaged his work as ―limited‖ and ―commonplace,
Larkin replied, ―I‘d like to know what dragon-infested world these lads
live in to make them so free with the word ‗commonplace‘.‖ His irritation
stemmed from his view that poetry ―was an act of sanity, of seeing things
as they are.‖

2. The author‘s primary concern in this passage is to:
A. show that Larkin‘s verse was informed by his views on poetry.(nothing such implied)
B. describe how Larkin created verse of lasting value based on ordinary
events. (as by 3rd para complete devoted to describe this , other paras are just adding info to it)
C. compare schools of poetry from the 19th and 20th centuries.(not central idea)
D. explain how the general reader became alienated from English poetry
by the mid-20th century.(only minor detail)
E. criticise Larking for writing fanciful and esoteric poetry (author has praised larkin in whole passage not criticized him)

ANS=B

3. The author cites the description of one of Larkin‘s poems by one of his
critics as ―the best horse picture ever painted.‖ This quotation serves
several purposes, including to demonstrate:
I. that critics considered Larkin‘s poetry poor and funny. (critics are mentioned in next para and that too in some other tone)
II. the commonplace subject matter of Larkin‘s work. (surely demonstrated by this line and previous too)
III. that critics often blurred Larkin‘s poetry with Larkin‘s views. (larkins views are no where mentioned)
A. I only
B. I and II only
C. II and III only
D. II only ( correct)
E. I, II and III

ANS=D

4. Based on the information provided in the passage, we can assume that
Larkin would be LEAST likely to write a poem taking as its subject:
A. a devout song of praise to God. (
B. the working day of a London businessman.
C. the death in war of an upper-class academic.
D. a current, happy love affair.
E. a day in the life of a schoolboy

from para 3 , so ans is A , all other are commonplace subjects that larkin wrote about.
he made the mundane details of his life the basis for tough, unsparing,
memorable poems that rejected the Victorian belief in a benevolent God,
exploring life with a post-religious stoicism.

Conquistador22 · Answer

For Q:1

I am really confused between A & B.
OA is B but I don't see why this should be the correct ans.

A. show how Larkin dismissed critics of his work by pointing out their personal failings.
B. show how Larkin mocked his critics for implying that everyday experience must be trivial.

Why A. 
When he said "I‘d like to know what dragon-infested world these lads live in to make them so free with the word ‗commonplace‘. isn't he pointed to his critic's failings by saying that they are staying in "dragon-infested world".

Why B seems incorrect:
I don't think he is implying that everyday experience must be trivial by saying "I‘d like to know what dragon-infested world these lads live in to make them so free with the word commonplace"

Please let me know if I am missing anything here...

ramannanda9 · Answer

The critiques critiqued his poetry's nature of being about commonplace scenarios, but he counters them by saying that such commonplace experiences aren't actually trivial and he is definitely mocking them by his remarks.

The source of this RC is Aristotle RC 99 guide.

The OE is mentioned below.

Go back to ¶2 to review the lines in context. Larkin said this when responding to
critics who said that his work was too ―commonplace.‖ What must Larkin have
believed? Not necessarily that his work wasn’t commonplace, but that being so
wasn‘t such a bad thing. (B) paraphrases this response.
(A): Out of Scope. Larkin never mentions any personal failings in the response.
He‘s concerned with showing that the ordinary isn‘t such a bad thing.
(B): The correct answer
(C): Distortion. Though Larkin‘s critics might have considered his poems
commonplace, that doesn‘t mean that they thought their own lives were
glamorous, or that they were attacking his poetry to make themselves look
better.
(D): Opposite. Larkin took pride in writing about common things; he disputed
critics‘ assessment of their importance, not of their commonness.
(E): ‗Saddened‘ is the wrong verb as described above

Gmatsaiyan · Answer

Topic and Scope:  discusses Philip Larkin‘s style of poetry and critics‘ reaction.
 Mapping the Passage 
¶1 introduces Philip Larkin by explaining his artistic tastes.
¶2 describes Larkin‘s response to critics and gives Larkin‘s artistic view: art should be
simple and easily accessible.
¶3 analyses Larkin‘s poetry and mentions some critical reaction.
¶4 mentions a perception of Larkin as antisocial and provides the author‘s own
positive view of Larkin‘s poetry.
¶5 gives some background on the career of Larkin.

Gmatsaiyan · Answer

Answers and Explanations OE 
  1) Go back to ¶2 to review the lines in context. Larkin said this when responding to critics who said that his work was too ―commonplace.‖ What must Larkin have believed? Not necessarily that his work wasn’t commonplace, but that being so wasn‘t such a bad thing. (B) paraphrases this response.
(A): Out of Scope. Larkin never mentions any personal failings in the response. He‘s concerned with showing that the ordinary isn‘t such a bad thing.
(B): The correct answer
(C): Distortion. Though Larkin‘s critics might have considered his poems commonplace, that doesn‘t mean that they thought their own lives were glamorous, or that they were attacking his poetry to make themselves look better.
(D): Opposite. Larkin took pride in writing about common things; he disputed critics‘ assessment of their importance, not of their commonness.
(E): ‗Saddened‘ is the wrong verb as described above.
 2) A main idea question. Predict the right answer based on purpose, scope, and topic. A vertical scan is helpful in this case too: ―describe‖ most closely matches what the author does. A check of the answer choice shows that it holds up. The author is concerned with describing Larkin‘s verse particularly in the context of the subjects he uses.
(A): Faulty Use of Detail. Though the author does mention Larkin‘s views on poetry, and shows how they tied in with what he wrote about, the purpose of the topic is broader than just to show this relation.
(B): The correct answer
(C): Out of Scope. This doesn‘t include Larkin specifically, a necessary element.
(D): Out of Scope. As above, this summary skims over Larkin, with whom the passage is mainly concerned.
(E): The author absolutely does not ‗criticise‘ Larkin
 3) Review the quote at the end of ¶3. The critic is referring to a specific poem of Larkin‘s. The lines above suggest that the critic is responding to the commonplace elements in the poem. Since the response is only half-admiring, the critic is complimenting the poem while at the same time noting its subject matter. The only RN that fits with these various purposes is RN II. RN I distorts the critics‘ view, and neglects the good half of the ―half-admiringly.‖ RN III is off the scope: While Larkin‘s own views and his poetry were intertwined, there‘s no evidence that the critics were focusing on some element of Larkin‘s views that wasn‘t in his poetry.
(A): Opposite. As described above.
(B): Opposite. As above.
(C): Opposite. As above.
(D): The correct answer
(E): Opposite. As above.
 4)  What would Larkin be least likely to write a poem about? Predict: something not commonplace. Only one of the choices fits this: (A) represents something that is intangible and lofty, definitely not commonplace.
(A): The correct answer
(B): Opposite. Very commonplace.
(C): Opposite. While the choice tries to trick you with the academic angle, death in war would still seem ―real‖ enough for Larkin‘s tastes.
(D): Opposite. Another commonplace subject.
(E): Opposite. Same as above, very commonplace.

Anandita123 · Answer

Option B doesn't imply that the Larkin mocked his critics because they said that his work as common(simple)
Option B means that Larking criticized the critics because they wanted to tell Larkin that everyday experience must be trivial

If that is the case, option B is definitely wrong and

Posted from my mobile device

akshatv45 · Answer

My Analysis for question 3:

As the critic Donald Hall put it (only half-admiringly), "At Grass" is the best horse picture ever painted.

This is used to illustrate how Larkin’s poetry transformed everyday details into something memorable—supporting Statement II about his "commonplace subject matter."

Re-Evaluating Statement III: Did Critics Blur Larkin’s Poetry with His Views?
The passage does mention that critics misunderstood Larkin at times:
"Some critics went so far as to call him anti-social.
In an interview, Larkin questioned why he was described as a melancholy man."

However, Hall’s specific quote about "At Grass" doesn’t necessarily show that critics blurred his poetry with his personal views.
Instead, it’s just a comment on the subject matter of the poem, not a misinterpretation of Larkin’s views.

Hence only II is correct and Option D is the answer.

Although he rejected the prevailing Neo-Romanticism of the late fortie

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Although he rejected the prevailing Neo-Romanticism of the late fortie

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