Fiction and the Reading Public - Philip Larkin

Give me a thrill, says the reader,

Give me a kick;I don't care how you succeed, or

What subject you pick.

Choose something you know all about

That'll sound like real life:

Your childhood, your Dad pegging out,

How you sleep with your wife.

But that's not sufficient, unless

You make me feel good -

Whatever you're 'trying to express'

Let it be understood

That 'somehow' God plaits up the threads,

Makes 'all for the best',

That we may lie quiet in our beds

And not be 'depressed'.

For I call the tune in this racket:

I pay your screw,

Write reviews and the bull on the jacket -

So stop looking blue

And start serving up your sensations

Before it's too late;

Just please me for two generations -

You'll be 'truly great'.

- Larkin is brilliant! This highlights his pressure as a writer from the readers who he feels want to take something of his experience from him. He views the public as being demanding of him and I feel the poem grudges the public and how critical they can be of anothers experience. If they are not entertained somewhat by it then they don't want to hear about it.