Talk:The North Ship

A start completed?
I've added the detail of "The North Ship" and think it looks good now. I've got rid of the double inverted commas the poems' titles; after all at the top of the list is says this is a list of poems. Now it's much easier to see the difference between the titled and the untitled poems. As they're indicating quotes rather than a title, I've used single inverted commas. I'm wondering if we ought to do the same for List of poems by Philip Larkin. I'll do a few so you can see what it would look like. I think now we need to add something about the publishing history of the work and a few quotes about its subsequent reception history (There's no doubt that it precedes Larkin's mature style but it shows his outlook on the world coming into focus) I think this section should go after the Contents section, as it's less factual  Almost - instinct 10:20, 2 June 2008 (UTC)
 * I think that the layout has been partially fixed, but it is not quite right yet. It does not scan very well because the Roman numerals are different lengths and the inverted commas are difficult to see. To me the list looks untidy. A table might help, but I can not be sure as the present time. Snowman (talk) 14:36, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

On the first ten as a trial I've used the ‘ & ’ marks that I found under the edit window. I think they're a big improvement  almost - instinct 14:52, 2 June 2008 (UTC)
 * I may not have noticed the differences, if you had not pointed them out. Why not use the same table format as for the "List of poems" for all the books. For this book; numbers could be in the first column for sorting and Roman numerals in the next (not for sorting). The dates could be in the table. Snowman (talk) 15:00, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

The Roman numerals aren't helping are they? Unfortunately, that's what's in the book. I'm not sure that a sortable table would be as much use on the pages for the seperate books, especially this one where most of the dates of composition are extremely vague. If we had a two column table, could the Roman numerals be right-justified and the titles left-justified? So that it looked a bit like this: (except without the dots!)  almost - instinct 15:16, 2 June 2008 (UTC)
 * ....I Poem A
 * ...II Poem B
 * ..III Poem C
 * ..IV Poem D
 * ...V Poem E

Yes the centre and right columns look good: central alignment for the Roman numerals is good. Are the columns obliged to have titles?  almost - instinct 15:56, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

I am wondering about how to indicate the poem has a heading or a first line. Another column for this? Snowman (talk) 16:24, 2 June 2008 (UTC)
 * The North Ship five poems might need special boxes in the table. Snowman (talk) 16:28, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Yes The North Ship isn't looking perfect. I think whether the poem is titled or not is sufficiently indicated by there being inverted commas or not. These new inverted commas stand away from the words better, so I think that's clear enough.  almost - instinct 16:38, 2 June 2008 (UTC)
 * PS Thank you for the table!  almost - instinct 16:38, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Italics
Those italics you've removed weren't there by accident: they were Larkin's own  almost - instinct 22:19, 2 June 2008 (UTC)
 * In the fifth poem of The North Ship "Above" was not in italics until I added some, so it was confusing. I have put the italics back as you had left the page. It is correct that "Above" has not got italics? Snowman (talk) 00:21, 3 June 2008 (UTC)