“Our almost-instinct almost true: / What will survive of us is love.” The final lines from Philip Larkin’s poem, ‘An Arundel Tomb’, that describes the effigies of a knight and his wife, have been inscribed on a stone in Westminster Abbey’s Poets’ Corner, which was unveiled at a memorial service to the poet on Friday 2 December.

The stone was unveiled by Anthony Thwaite, editor of Larkin’s Collected Poems, and president of the Philip Larkin Society, and Prof Edwin Dawes, chair of the society.

The service was conducted by the Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr John Hall. The address was given by the poet and writer Blake Morrison, while artist Grayson Perry read from A Letter to Monica 23rd October 1962, and Hull-born actor Sir Tom Courtenay read the poems ‘Days’ and ‘Reference Back’.

The stone, of Purbeck marble, was cut by sculptor Martin Jennings, who also made the statue of Larkin at Hull station.

When Larkin attended the unveiling of a memorial to WH Auden in 1974, he remarked in a letter to his mother: “Poets’ Corner seems to be getting pretty crowded!” But he added: “No doubt there will be room for me.” He also described himself as “an agnostic, I suppose, but an Anglican agnostic, of course”.

In 1984 Larkin declined an offer to succeed Sir John Betjeman as poet laureate. In mid-1985 he was admitted to hospital, and, because of ill health, was unable to receive the Order of Merit at an investiture at Buckingham Palace. He died on 2 December 1985 aged 63.