Philip Larkin was a renowned 20th century British poet. He was born in Coventry, England and educated at Oxford University. After graduating, he worked as a librarian in Shropshire before moving to Hull in 1955 to become the head librarian at the University of Hull, where he spent the rest of his life writing poetry. Some of his most famous works include The Whitsun Weddings, High Windows, and his novels Jill and Girl in Winter. He explored themes of death and mortality in his poetry and was greatly influenced by his own awareness of his mortality. Larkin died of cancer in 1985.

2. Philip Larkin