The North Ship
# The North Ship

The North Ship is the debut collection of poems by Philip Larkin (1922–1985), published in 1945 by Reginald A. Caton's Fortune Press. Caton did not pay his writers and expected them to buy a certain number of copies themselves. A similar arrangement had been used in 1934 by Dylan Thomas for his first collection.

Some of the poems were composed while Larkin was an undergraduate at the University of Oxford, but the bulk were written in the period 1943 to 1944 when he was running the public library in Wellington, Shropshire, and writing his second novel A Girl in Winter.

The volume was published again, in 1966, by Faber and Faber Limited. In the 1945 version there are 31 items, numbered with Roman numerals. The last of these, "The North Ship" is a set of five poems tracking a ship's northward progress. Of the 30 single poems, only seven have titles. In the 1966 reissue an extra poem, "Waiting for breakfast, while she brushed her hair" was added at the end. This edition is still in print.

The North Ship constitutes the first part of the 2003 edition of Larkin's Collected Poems.

## Content

The book contains 32 poems:

* Ellipsis (...) indicates first line of an untitled poem

| Sequence | Poem title or first line | Poem title or first line |
| - | - | - |
| 01I | All catches alight... | All catches alight... |
| 02II | This was your place of birth, this daytime palace... | This was your place of birth, this daytime palace... |
| 03III | The moon is full tonight... | The moon is full tonight... |
| 04IV | Dawn | Dawn |
| 05V | Conscript | Conscript |
| 06VI | Kick up the fire, and let the flames break loose... | Kick up the fire, and let the flames break loose... |
| 07VII | The horns of the morning... | The horns of the morning... |
| 08VIII | Winter | Winter |
| 09IX | Climbing the hill within the deafening wind... | Climbing the hill within the deafening wind... |
| 10X | Within the dream you said... | Within the dream you said... |
| 11XI | Night-Music | Night-Music |
| 12XII | Like the train's beat... | Like the train's beat... |
| 13XIII | I put my mouth... | I put my mouth... |
| 14XIV | Nursery Tale | Nursery Tale |
| 15XV | The Dancer | The Dancer |
| 16XVI | The bottle is drunk out by one... | The bottle is drunk out by one... |
| 17XVII | To write one song, I said... | To write one song, I said... |
| 18XVIII | If grief could burn out... | If grief could burn out... |
| 19XIX | Ugly Sister | Ugly Sister |
| 20XX | I see a girl dragged by the wrists... | I see a girl dragged by the wrists... |
| 21XXI | I dreamed of an out-thrust arm of land... | I dreamed of an out-thrust arm of land... |
| 22XXII | One man walking a deserted platform... | One man walking a deserted platform... |
| 23XXIII | If hands could free you, heart... | If hands could free you, heart... |
| 24XXIV | Love, we must part now: do not let it be... | Love, we must part now: do not let it be... |
| 25XXV | Morning has spread again... | Morning has spread again... |
| 26XXVI | This is the first thing... | This is the first thing... |
| 27XXVII | Heaviest of flowers, the head... | Heaviest of flowers, the head... |
| 28XXVIII | Is it for now or for always... | Is it for now or for always... |
| 29XXIX | Pour away that youth... | Pour away that youth... |
| 30XXX | So through that unripe day you bore your head... | So through that unripe day you bore your head... |
| 31XXXI | The North Ship | Legend Songs 65° N 70° N Fortunetelling 75° N Blizzard Above 80° N |
| 32XXXII | Waiting for breakfast, while she brushed her hair... | Waiting for breakfast, while she brushed her hair... |
