JOHN eoonsr 29. W.S, Graham, New Called Poems (London: Faber, 2006), p. 208, Further {quotations from this edition ae cited parentheically in he text, 49. Lopes, The Poetry of WS. Graham, p. 5. 4s William Montgomerie, Introduction to W.S. Graham, The Seven Journeys (Glasgow: William Machellan, Poetry Scotland series, 1944). ‘42 Andrew Crozier, Thrills and Frills: Poetry as Figures af Empirical Lyris Society and Literate 2045-199, ed. Alan Sifield (London: Methuen, 198), p. 23. wa Chapter 47 Larkin and the Movement STEPHEN REGAN Philip Laskin's place in the history of English poetry has been @ matter of intense debate, buc there is lite doubt that Larkin was the most distinguished poet among that group of writers know as the Movement. Larkin claimed to have ‘no sense at all’ of Belonging to a literary movement, but his work was “widely regarded in the 19508 and 1960s as the most promising expression of a new set of thematic and stylistic preoccupations in English verse." Larkin’s poetry was anthologised with that of other Movement pocts, including Kingsley Amis, Donald Davie, John Wain, Blizabeth Jennings, D.J. Enright and'Thom Guna, and these poets were grouped together in critical essays and reviews, Although the existence of the Movement has been treated with scepticism by some critics, and sometimes dismissed 2s a literary hoax or a journalistic publicity sunt, there is enough evidence in the poetry and prose of these writers to suggest a strong and genuine compasbility of interests. Blake Moctison, inthe most authoritative account ofthe Movement to dae, offers ‘compelling argument that, despite some obvious divisions and contradictions, ‘there was considerable agreement and interaction, and out of these was established a Mevernent consensus.* le was in the pages of the influential London periodical the Spectator thac aims on behalf of a new movement in English poetry in the 19508 began to sappeat. Ina controversial review article, ‘Poets of the Fifties’, Anthony Hartley