ABSTRACT
The most admirers of Larkin would agree that 'Cut Grass' shows less than his full poetic range, but they may be less willing to agree that the squib in the letter to Conquest has any relevance to the poem. The author was reminded by a more fortuitous juxtaposition in Andrew Motion's biography of Philip Larkin. The argument is that the embedding of a genteel patriotic in an ostensibly universal pastoral lament for the passing of youth and beauty is a recognisable conservative discourse which, while it does not necessarily presuppose a reactionary and racist political accompaniment, is perfectly compatible with it and potentially reinforces it. The expression of racism and associated reactionary attitudes always takes the crudest imaginable form in Larkin's letters. There is no attempt to justify the prejudice or to argue a position. Critics have attempted to contextualise Larkin's consciousness socially and historically.
