Philip
Larkin
“
The poe try of Philip Larkin is thoroughly moder n. It combines a homely,
sophisticated language with detailed and accurate descriptions that are narrated
for the most part by an entirely personal voice. His poetry manages to capture
the moment in an uncompromisingly realistic fashion that can sometimes appear
pessimis tic. Larkin’s verse can be sneering and contemptuous of society at
large, ye t, at the same time, he can be hilariously funny and self-deprecating.
For all i ts bleak realism, Larkin’s poetry is open and warm. He bemoans the
certainty of death, yet affirms the possibility of continuity and renewal glimpsed
in nature. You should approach Larkin’s poetry with an open mind. If read
without prejudice, it will force you to reassess many of your most deeply held
beliefs.
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2011
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T h e Wh it s u n Wed d ings
That W h itsun, I was late getting away:
Not t ill ab out
One-twenty on the sunlit Saturday
Did my t hree-quarters-empty train pull out,
All windo ws down, all cushions hot, all sense 5
10
15
20
And dow n the long cool platforms whoops and skirls 25
30
Of being in a hurry gone. We ran
Behind t he backs of houses, crossed a street
Of blinding windscreens, smelt the fish-dock; thence
The river ’s level drifting breadth began,
Where sk y and Lincolnshire and water meet. All after n oon, through the tall hea t that slept
F or miles inland,
A slow a nd stopping curve southwards we kept.
W i d e farms went by, short-shadowed cattle, and
Canals with floatings of industrial froth; A hothou se flashed uniquely: hedges dipped
And rose: and now and then a smell of grass
Displace d the reek of buttoned carriage-cloth
Until the next town, new and nondescript,
Approac hed with acres of dismantled cars. At first, I didn’t notice what a noise
T he wed d ings mad e
E ach sta tion that we stopped at: sun destroys
The interest of what’s happening in the shade,
I took for porters larking with the mails,
And wen t on reading. Once we started, though,
We p a ss ed them, grinning and pomaded, gir ls
In parod ies of fashion, heels and veils,
All poised irresolutely, watching us go, As if out on the end of an event
Waving good b ye
To some thi ng tha t surv i v e d i t. Str uck, I leant
More pro mptly out next time, more curiously,
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2011
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And saw it all again in different terms: 35
The fathers with broad belts under their suits
And seam y foreheads; mothers loud and fat;
An uncle shouting smut; and then the perms,
The nylo n gloves and jewellery-substitutes,
The lemons, mauves, and olive-ochres that 40
45
50
55
60
Marked o ff the girls unreally from the rest.
Yes, from cafés
And banquet-halls up yards, and bunting-dressed
Coach-party annexes, the wedding-days
We re c om ing to an end. All down the line Fresh co uples climbed aboard: the rest stood round;
The last confetti and advice were thrown,
And, as we moved, each face seemed to define
Just wha t it saw departing: children frowned
At something dull; fathers had never known Success so huge and wholly farcical;
The wom en shared
The secret like a happy funeral;
While gir ls, gripping their handbags tighter, stared
At a relig ious wounding. Free at last, And load ed with the sum of all they saw,
We hurri ed towards London, shuff ling gouts of steam.
Now field s were building-plots, and poplars cast
Long shadows over major roads, and for
Some fif ty minutes, that in time would seem
Just long enough to settle hats and say
I nearly d ied,
A dozen marriages got under way.
They wa tched the landscape, sitting side by side
—An Od eon went past, a cooling tower, 65
and someone running up to bowl—and none
Thought of the others they would never meet
Or how t heir lives would all contain this hour.
I thought of London spread out in the sun,
Its posta l districts packed like squares of wheat: 70
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There we were aimed. And as we raced across
Bright kn ots of rail
Past sta nding Pullmans, walls of blackened moss
Came close, and it was nearly done, this frail
Travel l i ng coincidence; and what it held 75
Stood re ady to be loosed with all the power
That bein g changed can give. We slowed again,
And as t he tightened brakes took hold, there swelled
A sense of falling, like an arrow-shower
Sent out of sight, somewhere becoming rain. 80
glossary
The title, ‘The Whitsun Weddings’, refers to
40 olive-ochres – greenish-gold colours.
Pentecost Sunday, which is the seventh Sunday
44 annexes – separate areas.
after Easter. This was a time in the early Christian
51 farcical – ridiculous.
calendar when converts to the Church wore white
55 religious wounding – here, the speaker is
robes in honour of their belief in the Holy Spirit.
referring to the act of sexual intercourse.
In this poem, there is the underlying notion that
Once the couple has had sexual relations, the
the wedding is the start of a new life, both for the
marriage is said to be consummated. When
married couple and for their respective families.
sexual intercourse takes place for the first
To this day, Whitsun is a particularly popular time
time, the subsequent rupturing of the hymen
to celebrate a wedding.
can result in bleeding.
19 nondescript – unremarkable or ordinary.
65 Odeon – a commonly used name for a
25 skirls – a shrill cry or sound.
cinema.
28 pomaded – hair finished with pomade or
73 Pullmans – named after their inventor, George
another hair product.
Pullman, these are luxury railway carriages or
30 irresolutely – waveringly or undecidedly.
saloons.
1. Content
The Whit sun Weddings is the title poem from Larkin’s best-known collection of
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poems. On the day on which Larkin was inspired to write this poem, he tells us
that he caught:
A
very
slow
train
that
stopped
at
every
station
and
I
h adn’ t realised that, of course, this was the train that all
t he
wedding couples would get on and go to London for
t heir honeymoon; it was an eye-opener to me. Every part
was different but the same somehow. They all looked
d ifferent but they were all doing the same things and sort
o f feeling the same t hings. I suppose the train stopped at
a bout four, five, six stations between Hull and London a nd
t here was a sense of gathering emotional
m o m e n t u m .
Every time you stopped fresh emotion climbed
a b o a r d .
A nd finally between Peterborough and London when
y o u
h urtle on, you felt the whole thing was being aimed like a
b ullet
– at the heart of things, you know. All this fresh,
o pen life. Incredible experience. I’ ve never forgotten it.
The poem opens with a very personal and direct statement of fact. The speaker
tells us that on ‘That Whitsun, [he] was late getting away’. The details are very
specific; it was about ‘One-twenty on [a] sunlit Saturday’. The mood
in the
opening stanza is relaxed. All ‘sense | Of being in a hurry [is] gone’. The train
moves behind the backs of the houses and, as its momentum gathers, the
scenery changes. As the train passes by the fish docks and the river, the
Lincolns hire countryside begins to stretch out before the poet. In the second
stanza, we lear n that the train followed a southward curve. ‘W ide farms’ dotted
with ‘short-shadowed cattle’ come in and out of view. Slowly, the countryside
gives wa y to the small towns. ‘Canals with floatings of industrial froth’ signal the
approach of a more urban landscape. The area between towns is indicated by
hedgerow s and the smell of cut grass. In the poet’s estimation, these small
towns are nondescript. The second stanza closes with the ugly image of ‘acres
of dismantled cars’. The speaker reasserts his presence in the third stanza. He
informs us that ‘At first, [he] didn’t notice what a noise | The weddings made’.
This is the first mention of the weddings referred to in the title. The powerful sun
shining down on each of the stations that the train stops at hides ‘what’s
happenin g in the shade’. The speaker admits that he had heard ‘whoops and
skirls’ o f excitement coming from the platforms. However, he had mistakenly
believed that this noise came from the porters messing and joking. He now
realises that the commotion was coming from wedding parties gathered on the
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station p latforms. The sight of grinning and pomaded ‘girls | In parodies of
fashion, heels and veils’ grabs the speaker’s attention. These girls stand on the
platform and wave tentatively at the train. Anticipating a similar scene at the
next stat ion, the poet leans: More promptly out next time, more curiously,
And saw it all again in different terms: In great detail, the poet describes the
scene th at greets him.
There is an ‘uncle shouting smut’ and women wearing
‘nylon gl oves’ and ‘jewellery-substitutes’. The colours of their clothes are bright,
even garish, and ‘Marked [them off] unreally’ from the rest of the crowd on the
platform. The poet imagines that these wedding parties have come from the
surround ing cafés and ‘banquet-halls’ and then remarks that the ‘wedding-days
| Were c oming to an end’. Me anwhile, ‘Fresh couples’ continue to climb on
board th e train. As they do so, these newly married men and women move away
from the crowds in the station. The poet sees different things etched on the
faces of the people who are there to see the newlyweds off. The children
‘frowned ’ while the fathers ‘had never known | Success so huge and wholly
farcical’. The women view the wedding couple in a different light. The look on
their faces implies a recognition of the pain that marriage can bring. Their
experience of watching their daughters depart is described as being akin to
attending a funeral. The younger girls anticipate the physical pain of the sexual
act. The poem picks up momentum slightly towards the end of the seventh
stanza:
We hurried t ow ards London, shuff ling gout s of st eam . Now fields
were building-plots , and poplars cast Long shadows over major
roads, and for S ome f if t y m inut es, […]
The seventh stanza runs into the eighth and, in this manner, the poem maintains
its impetus. The women settle their hats and the uniformity of their experience is
expresse d when they are all seen to exclaim: ‘I nearly died’ . The landscape
continue s to go by and couples remain fixated on one another. They give little
thought to those other newlyweds on the train whose ‘lives would all contain
this hour’. Suddenly, towards the end of the stanza, the poet begins to think of
‘London spread out in the sun, | Its postal districts packed like squares of
wheat’. London is the final destination of this jour ney and in the final stanza, it
becomes clear that the poet has been changed by his experience on the train.
The last two lines of the poem reveal something of the power of this experience.
The poet is overwhelmed by:
A sense of falling, like an arrow- shower
S ent out of sight , som ewhere becom ing rain.
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The poem itself is also transformed from a simple commentary on a train ride to
a profound meditation on the many paths that life can take.
2. stylistic features
The pers ona
adopted by Larkin in this poem echoes many of his own heartfelt
reservati ons about love and marriage. Confronted by the sights and sounds of
wedding parties, the poet is forced to meditate on the concept of marriage and
the new beginning that it implies. The rhythms and metre of the poem create a
sensation of movement and progression. And while such movement reflects the
momentum of the train, it also captures something of the progress of the
couples as the jour ney of their married life begins. The broad vowel sounds in
the open ing stanzas create an impression of openness that is mirrored in
the des criptions of the countryside, but they also suggest the sense of
hopefulness associated with marriage. In stark contrast to all of this is the
attitude of the speaker. He is, unlike the couples, completely alone. The opening
line of the poem emphasises his isolation by stressing the personal pronoun ‘I’.
At times in the poem, it seems as if the speaker is contemptuous of the people
who are taking part in the wedding ceremony. The hope and belief in a future life
together, symbolised by the newlyweds’ commitment to marriage, is contrasted
with the failings of the older generation. The fathers with
‘seamy foreheads’,
the ‘mot hers loud and fat’ and the ‘uncle shouting smut’ remind us that the
idealism of marriage fades quickly into an ugly reality. Are we meant to suppose
that these young, hopeful couples will eventually become as unappealing as
the families that are there to wave them off? In any case, the poem contains
many cr ude generalisations. The girls who wait on the platform are ador ned in
cheap clothing that imitates the fashions of the time. The pastel shades of their
dresses were chosen because they are fashionable, but instead they appear
brash and common. The weddings, which were intended to celebrate the special
uniquene ss of each relationship, become indistinguishable from one another. As
they board the train, the poet has the newlyweds uttering the same
exclamations. There is a darker side also to the poem. The women should be
entering into a new life. However, the reality is different. Their subjugation and
repression is indicated by the expressions on the faces of their mothers. As with
many of Larkin’s poems, in “The Whitsun Weddings”
it is often quite difficult to
determine where the speaker stands. Given that the tone of the poem hints at a
cynical attitude to marriage, the final lines seem curiously out of place.
Accordin g to Andrew Motion:
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All the p aradoxes which gover n Larkin’s thoughts about love are
collected here in an image adapted from a film he had seen as a young
man dur ing the war.
The arrow has been symbolic of love since the earliest days of Greek literature.
Here, at the end of the poem, the speaker is confronted with the joy, excitement
and hope of married life. It is a joy, however, from which he is excluded.
[…] We s lowed again, And as the tightened brakes took hold, there swelled
A sense of falling, like an arrow-shower Sent out of sight, somewhere becoming
rain. De spite his undoubted scepticism concer ning marriage, the speaker has
been marked by his encounter with the wedding couples. One suspects that he
will leave the train a different pe rson. Once again, the position of the speaker is
ambiguo us.
3. essay writing
This com plex poem is considered by many to typify Larkin’s poetic style. This
fact alone makes it worthy of inc lusion in any personal response that you may be
re q ui re d to write on Larkin’s poetr y. When prepar ing an essay that mentions
“The W h itsun Weddings” , you might want to include some of the following
points:
a. The tone of the speaker’s voice is, at times, cynical.
b. The la nguage of the poem is infused with an energy that gathers and grows
until the couples reach their final destination.
c. Once again, Larkin examines the notion of love and marriage. In this respect,
the poem can be compared to An Arundel Tomb and Wedding W ind.
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A n A rundel Tom b
Side by side, their faces blurred,
The earl and countess lie in stone,
Their proper habits vaguely shown
As jointed armour, stiffened pleat,
And that faint hint of the absurd — 5
10
15
20
Persisted , linked, through lengths and breadths 25
30
The little dogs under their feet.
Such plainness of the pre-baroque
Hardly involves the eye, until
It meets his left-hand gauntlet, still
Clasped empty in the other; and One see s, with a sharp tender shock,
His hand withdrawn, holding her hand.
They wo uld not think to lie so long.
Such faithfulness in effigy
Wa s j ust a detail friends would see: A sculpt or’s sweet commissioned grace
Thrown o ff in helping to prolong
The Latin names around the base.
They wo uld not guess how early in
Their sup ine stationary voyage The air would change to soundless damage,
Tur n t he old tenantry away;
How soo n succeeding eyes begin
To look, not re a d. R i gi dl y the y
Of time. Snow fell, undated. Light
E ach sum mer thronged the glass. A bright
Litter of birdcalls strewed the same
Bone-rid dled ground. And up the paths
The endl ess altered people came, © Cian Hogan
2011
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Wa shi ng at their identity.
Now, hel pless in the hollow of
An unarmorial age, a trough
Of smoke in slow suspended skeins
Above their scrap of history, 35
40
Only an attitude remains:
T i me has transfigured them into
Untruth. The stone fidelity
They hardly meant has come to be
Their final blazon, and to prove Our almost-instinct almost true:
What wil l survive of us is love.
glossary
Th e t it le, ‘A n A r u n de l To m b ’ , re f e r s t o a
or na m entation. The statue is in keeping
to mb in C hi c h e st e r C a t h e d r a l i n E ngl and .
w ith the plain, unador ned style of the
Ar un d el is a t o w n i n We s t S u sse x .
‘pre- b aroque ’ e r a .
2 li e in st o ne – t h i s re f e rs t o t h e ca r v ing
9 gau nt le t – glov e .
on t he tomb s t o n e . T h e w o rd ‘ s t o n e ’ is th e
14 effigy – a sc ulpt ure of a pe r son.
fi r s t in a se ri e s o f wo rds t h a t h i n t a t a la ck
20 supi ne – inc line d or ly ing on y our ba c k.
of mov e me n t .
22 t ena nt r y – t hose w ho liv e a s t e na nt s.
4 s t iffe n e d pl e at – h a rd f o l d . T h e words
33 un armorial – not containing armour or
‘ joi nt ed ’ a nd ‘ p l e a t ’ s u g g e s t c o n ne c tion
a crest of arms. The statue now exists in
a n d re la t io n s h i p .
a n a g e t h a t h a s n o i n t e re s t i n f a m i l y
7 p re- b a ro qu e – t h e b aro q u e s t y l e w as
c re st s of arms. 34 skeins – loosely tied
c h a r act e ri s e d b y a h i g h de g re e o f
c oil or standard length of thread or yar n.
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2011
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1. Conte nt
“An Arundel Tomb” opens with the depiction of an engraving on the surface of a
tomb. We lear n that the couple lie ‘side by side’ and that their faces have
become ‘blurred’ by the passing of time. The speaker then describes pleats on
the couple’s garments, their ‘jointed armour’ and the carved ‘little dogs under
their feet’. In the second five-line stanza, we lear n that this carving is ordinary
and plai n. Etched in the ‘pre-baroque’ style, which is known for its plainness,
this carv ing ‘Hardly involves’ t he poet’s eye. However, in the third line the
speaker hints at why this statue fascinates him. The ‘left-hand gauntlet’ is
empty b ecause the figure has removed it in order to hold his wife’s hand. This
detail comes as a ‘sharp tender shock’ to the poet. Commenting further on the
couple, the speaker points out that they would never have imagined lying
together for so long. The poet then wonders whether the couple had ever
intended such a detailed statue to be seen by anyone other then their friends.
The spe aker imagines that this couple and the sculptor they commissioned
would have viewed the statue as merely being a device to ‘prolong’ the family
name. In the fourth stanza, we lear n that there is no way, in the early days of
their lon g ‘supine stationary voyage’, that the couple could have understood
how much the world would change. They would have been ignorant of the extent
to which their tomb would be affected by the processes of weathering. Similarly,
they wou ld have been surprised at the social changes that have occurred. The
old ‘tenantry’ have all but disappeared and people can no longer read Latin:
Tur n t he old tenantry away; How soon succeeding eyes begin To look, not read.
The fourth and fifth stanzas run on into one another. Here, we lear n that this
couple has ‘Persisted, linked, through lengths and breadths | Of time The poet
imagines the changing of the seasons that have gone unrecorded. In the last line
of the fifth stanza, we retur n to the present age of mass tourism: And up the
paths The endless altered people came, The sheer number of people visiting the
tomb ha s helped to erode the engravings on its surface. In this sense, they are
‘Washing at their identity’. The couple have come down through history and now
lie ‘helpless in the hollow of | An unarmorial age’. Today, there is little interest in
coats of arms or family history. In the final stanza, we lear n that this couple have
become ‘transfigured […] into | Untruth’. Cast in stone, they have achieved a
level of fidelity they could never have intended. This accident of time, by which
the coup le have come to symbolise lasting love, is viewed by the poet as being
highly si gnificant. However, while the statue reminds us that love can endure, it
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also rem inds us that nothing, including love itself, is completely free from the
ravages of time.
2. stylistic features
This is a very complex poem that poses some very interesting questions. “An
Arundel Tomb’s” structure is simple and straightforward. This construction
mirrors t he ordinary, ‘pre-baroque’ style of the tomb itself. The poem opens with
a strong visual image
of the stone wor n away by the passing of time. It has
been ‘bl urred’ by the agents of erosion. However, this process has taken place
at an alm ost imperceptibly slow pace. An impression of this slow passing of time
is achieved through the use of alliteration
and soft sibilant
‘s’ sounds. Notice
how the ‘f ’ sound in ‘faithfulness’ is picked up again in the word ‘effigy’. This
whispering sound is captured again in such lines as ‘sweet commissioned
grace’. T he flow of the poem continues uninterrupted until the fifth stanza.Here,
the use of caesura
breaks the lines up and interrupts the progression of
thought. In this manner, the destructive effects of the passing of time are
reflected in the poem’s structure. One of the more interesting features of this
poem is its overall lack of clarity. At times, it is as if the poet is not quite sure
what to make of the statue. This lack of clarity is first introduced in the opening
line with the word ‘blurred’. In the first stanza, the poet tells us that:
The earl and count ess lie in st one,
Their proper habit s vaguely shown
The use of the word ‘lie’ is very interesting here. The speaker exploits the
ambiguit y between the two meanings of the word. ‘Lie’ can mean to rest or to
tell an untruth. So, from the outset, the speaker may be suggesting that the
statue lies to us about the notion of never-ending love. Similarly, words such as
‘faint’, ‘hint’, ‘hardly’, ‘almost’ and ‘vaguely’ all suggest a lack of purpose.
These words, when taken into consideration with the equivocal final line of the
poem, lead the reader to question the central message of “An Arundel Tomb”.
Does La rkin really believe that love can see off the ravages of time? At the end
of the m anuscript draft of the poem, the poet wrote: [ …] love isn’t stronger
than death just because statues hold hands for 600 years.
Accordin g to his biographer, Andrew Motion, this is ‘a remark which reinforced,
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privately, the sense of futility that hovers around the poem’s conclusion in words
like “helpless”, “scrap”, “attitude”, “Untruth” and “almost”’. In fact, the poem is
purposely ambiguous. On the one hand, its language suggests a lasting, even
timeless , relationship and on the other hand, the poem recognises that the
lovers are dead. Words like ‘pleat’ and ‘jointed’ lead us to the central image of
the two figures with their hands clasped together. However, the reader is never
allowed to forget that this pair of lovers is dead and the world they knew has
long since faded away. The visitors to the tomb symbolise
the extent to which
the world has changed. The old hierarchies of social order have vanished and
people can no longer read Latin. One of the most profound changes that has
taken pl ace in the world is implied but never stated explicitly by the poet. Our
attitude to love has been radica lly altered since this couple commissioned their
statue.M arriage The speaker exploits the ambiguity in certain words. The visitors
to the tomb symbolise the extent to which the world has moved on. Marriage is
no longe r seen as being for life and the idea of unending love is widely
disparag ed in the moder n world. Conrad Brunström believes that the final stanza
of “An A rundel Tomb” is often misread, even by literary critics:
The ‘almost-instinct almost true’ does not demonstrate that love lasts for all
eter nity but only that love can seem
to last. The fact that ‘love’ does not quite
rhyme with ‘prove’ is illustrative of this deceptive seeming. This is a memorable
poem th at forces its readers to rethink deeply held beliefs about love, death and
the pass ing of time.
3. essay writing
“An Arun del Tomb”
has much in common with many of the poems by Larkin on
the cour se. As such, you might want to consider using the poem in an overall
response to Larkin’s poetry. If you decide to use the poem in an essay, you
might want to consider some of the following points:
a. Once again, Larkin deals with the passing of time. In this sense, it is
possible to compare and contrast “An Arundel Tomb” and “Church Going” .
b. The notion of enduring love is a source of fascination to the poet. Here,
again, Larkin examines this theme. Consider a comparison between this
poem an d “The Whitsun Weddings” .
c. The p oem reveals Larkin’s keen eye for detail.
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Church Going
Once I am sure there’s nothing going on
I step ins ide, letting the door thud shut.
Another church: matting, seats, and stone,
And little books; sprawlings of flowers, cut
For Sunday, brownish now; some brass and stuff 5
10
15
20
25
30
Up at the holy end; the small neat organ;
And a te nse, musty, unignorable silence,
Brewed God knows how long. Hatless, I take off
My cycle -clips in awkward reverence,
Move forward, run my hand around the font. From where I stand, the roof looks almost new—
Cleaned, or restored? Someone would know: I don’t.
Mounting the lecter n, I peruse a few
Hectoring large-scale verses, and pronounce
‘Here en deth’ much more loudly than I’d meant. The echo es snigger briefly. Back at the door
I sign the book, donate an Irish sixpence,
Reflect t he place was not worth stopping for.
Yet st op I did: in fact I often do,
And always end much at a loss like this, Wond e ri n g what to look for; wonder ing, too,
When ch urches fall completely out of use
What we shall tur n them into, if we shall keep
A few ca thedrals chronically on show,
Their parchment, plate and pyx in locked cases, And let the rest rent-free to rain and sheep.
Shall we avoid them as unlucky places?
Or, after dark, will dubious women come
To make the i r c hi l dre n touc h a par t icular st one;
Pick simples for a cancer; or on some Advised night see walking a dead one?
Power of some sort or other will go on
In games, in riddles, seemingly at random;
But supe rstition, like belief, must die,
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And what remains when disbelief has gone? 35
40
45
50
55
60
Grass, weedy pavement, brambles, buttress, sky,
A shape less recognisable each week,
A purpose more obscure. I wonder who
W i l l b e t he last, the very last, to seek
This plac e for what it was; one of the crew That tap and jot and know what rood-lofts were?
Some ru in-bibber, randy for antique,
Or Chris tmas-addict, counting on a whiff
Of gown -and-bands and organ-pipes and myrrh?
Or will h e be my representative, Bored, u ninformed, knowing the ghostly silt
Disperse d, yet tending to this cross of ground
Through suburb scrub because it held unspilt
So long and equably what since is found
Only in s eparation—marriage, and birth, And dea th, and thoughts of these—for which was built
This spe cial shell? For, though I’v e no idea
What thi s accoutred frowsty bar n is worth,
It pleases me to stand in silence here;
A serious house on serious earth it is, In whose blent air all our compulsions meet,
Are recognised, and robed as destinies.
And that much never can be obsolete,
Since someone will forever be surprising
A hunger in himself to be more serious, And gravitating with it to this ground,
Which, h e once heard, was proper to grow wise in,
If only that so many dead lie round.
© Cian Hogan
2011
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glossary
4 s p r aw lin g s – r a g g e d bu n c h e s o f f l o w er s.
c le r gy from the laity, i.e. those in the
10 fon t – v e ss e l f o r ba pt i si n g .
c ongreg a t ion w ho w e re n’t me mbe r s of t he
1 3 l e c t e r n – a s t a n d f ro m w h i c h t h e
c le r gy.
s cr ip t u re is rea d.
14 He c t or in g – b a d g e r i n g o r a t t e mp t i ng to
42 r uin- bibbe r – a bibbe r is some one w ho
interrupt another person while he/she
like s to dr ink. He re , t he poe t proba bly
ta lks .
mea ns some one w ho like s t o sift t hrough
24 c hron ical l y – c o n s t a n t l y.
r uins.
25 p a rch m e n t – wr i t i n g pa pe r.
42 r an dy – t his w ord is usua lly a ssoc ia t e d
25 p yx – a c o n t a i n e r i n wh i c h w a f e rs for
wi th some one w ho displa y s fr a nk,
th e Euch ari s t a re k e pt . I n t h e C a th oli c
uninhibit e d se xua lit y. How e v e r, it c a n a lso
re ligion , t h e E u c h a ri s t i s b re a d a n d w ine
b e use d t o me a n ill- ma nne re d. He re , t he
that
p oet p roba bly int e nds t he w ord t o me a n
has
been
consecrated
and
is
c o n s u m e d i n r e m e m b r a n c e o f J e s u s ’s
some one lust ing a ft e r a nt ique s.
d e a th .
44 gow n- a nd- ba nds – c e re monia l dre ss.
28 d ub iou s – u n c er t a i n o r d o u b t f u l .
44 my r r h – a n e xpe nsiv e , a roma t ic oil.
30 si m p le s – h e rb al c u re s.
My r r h w a s one of t he gift s t a ke n t o t he
38 ob sc u re – u n c l ea r.
b aby Je sus by t he t hre e w ise me n.
41 rood- lof t s – g a l l e r i e s b u i l t a b o v e a
47 Dispe r se d – spre a d out .
rood screen. The rood screen was a
53 ac c out re d – dre sse d or e quippe d.
common
53 frowst y – st uffy.
feature
in
late
medieval
ch u rches . I t s f u n c t i o n w a s t o s e p a r a t e t he
56 com pulsions – ir re sist ible impulse s.
61 gr av it a t ing – mov ing t ow a rds.
© Cian Hogan
2011
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1. content
In a manner typical of Larkin’s poetic style, Church Going opens in a modest,
understated fashion:
Once I am sure there’s nothing going on
I st ep i nsid e, letting the door thud shut.
From the outset, it is clear this is going to be a monologue
nature. To begin with, the po et adopts the persona
of a personal
of an interloper or
trespass er. Once inside the church, the speaker takes in all the parapher nalia of
the church. There are ‘little books’and ‘sprawlings of flowers’ which were cut
for Sunday’s mass but have now gone brownish in colour. In the front of the
church, which the speaker describes as being the ‘holy end’, there is a ‘ small
n eat organ’. The entire church is infused with a ‘ tense, musty, unignorable
silence’. It is customary for men to remove their hats on entering a church.
However, not wearing a hat, the poet feels compelled to make some gesture that
will dem onstrate respect. He chooses to remove his cycle-clips in ‘awkward
re ve re nce’. In the second stanza, the poet begins to interact with the church.
He runs his hand around the font and wonders about the condition of the roof as
one would wonder about the condition of the soul: ‘Cleaned, or restored ?’ He
moves f orward and mounts the lecter n. The speaker begins to peruse the
scripture and proclaims the words ‘“Here endeth ”much more loudly’ than he
intended . He feels a little silly and the echo from his own voice appears to
snigger at him. Moving back towards the exit, he signs the visitors’ book and
‘don ate[s] an Irish sixpence’ to the church collection box. Of course, this is
not lega l tender in Great Britain. He then reflects on his visit and decides that
the place was ‘ not worth stopping for’. In the third stanza, the poet begins to
wonder about his decision to stop in the first place. He tells us that he often
stops to visit churches like this one. Curiously, he is left with the same feelings
of uncertainty each time the visit is over. The speaker then begins to examine
the role that churches play in a world that is becoming increasingly secular. He
wonders what will become of church buildings once they have fallen completely
out of u se. W ill some of them become museum pieces ‘ chronically on show’,
but no longer functional? In the final lines of the third stanza, the speaker
compares a disused church to the religious ruins of our pagan past. He wonders
if in the future, when church buildings have fallen into complete ruin, they will be
considered unlucky places, as is the case with pagan ruins. The third and fourth
stanzas are linked by a run-on line. In keeping with the previous stanza, the
fourth stanza opens with the poet wondering whether church grounds will
© Cian Hogan
2011
- 18 -
eventual ly become the haunt of witches or ‘dubious women ’. These women he
imagines will:
[…] make their ch i l dren touch a parti cul ar stone;
P ick si mp les fo r a cancer; or on some
Advised ni g ht see wal ki ng a dead one?
However, even these superstitious activities will fade with time. He then looks
f o r w a rd t o a t i m e w h e n t h e s i t e o f t h e c h u rc h h a s b e c o m e c o m p l e t e l y
dissociated from spirituality or belief. The ruins will become less recognisable
each week as they succumb to the ravages of time. This leads the poet to
speculate about who will be the last person ‘to seek | This place for what it
was’. He suggests it may well be someone who specialises in ruins, such as an
archaeologist or ‘Some ruin-bibber, randy for antique’. This stanza ends with
the poet speculating that a future visitor to this place may well be some:
[…] Christmas-ad di ct, counti ng on a whi ff
Of go wn-and -b an ds and organ- pi pes and myrrh?
2. stylistic features
This poe m contains two of Larkin’s favourite themes: spirituality and the passing
of time. In the poem, the poet ta kes on the persona of an ordinary man trying to
understand the role of the Church in an increasingly secular world. However, the
poem re ally contains two interlaced voices. Firstly, there is the colloquial,
workada y voice of the speaker. This voice emerges clearly in such phrases as ‘ I
don ’t’ and ‘I’ve no idea ’. Since the poem is written in iambic pentameter (a
meter particularly suited to normal voice patter ns), the speaker’s voice sounds
natural. Yet, despite all this, a more scholarly voice intrudes from time to time.
At variou s points in the poem, the speaker’s knowledge of religious vocabulary
goes beyond that of the layman. By allowing this aspect of the speaker’s voice
to encro ach on the narrative, Larkin manages to convey something of the
mystique of the traditional Church.At the same time, we are made to feel that
words like ‘pyx’, ‘font’ a n d ‘plate’ are really no longer significant to the
common man. The notion that the Church is no longer completely relevant is, of
course, at the heart of this poem. The ambiguous title hints at the poem’s
central t hesis, the idea that the ‘Church
© Cian Hogan
2011
- 19 -
[is] Going ’. In order to grasp the significance of this, it is important to
compreh end the crucial role that church buildings have played in European
culture. In social, legal, artistic and, of course, religious terms, the Church
literally lay at the heart of wester n society for nearly 2,000 years. This fact
re m a i ne d largely unchanged until the latter half of the last centur y. Yet, ‘Church
Going’ does not articulate the central role that the Church played in the past.
Rather, t he poem looks to the future and imagines a world without the Church.
In so do ing, Larkin reveals (albeit in a subtle manner) the important role that
traditions play. If this poem had ended after the second stanza, it would have
been ve ry easy to dismiss the speaker as deprecating the importance of the
Church. However, once the speaker leaves the church, it becomes apparent that
this is not the first time that he has visited such a building. This honest
admissio n reveals that the Church still holds an important place in the poet’s
life. E ven when the poet imagi nes the disappearance of this church, he still
envisages people being drawn to this site. Although Larkin was an agnostic
member of the Anglican Church, he once pointed out (commenting on the
decline of the Church of England) that ‘ the
better than nothing’. While ‘Church Going’
Catholic
Church
would
be
does look forward to a time
when th e formal Church will lose its relevance to everyday life, the poem also
celebrates, in an understated manner, the traditions of the Church. The speaker
in this poem is evidently a person without faith, but the tone
of the speaker’s
voice betrays his need to recover something of the comfort that faith provides.
When first published, this poem helped to establish Larkin’s reputation as an
important, post-war poet. Most critics agree that ‘ Church Going’
incorporates
into its v ery structure the openn ess and self-scrutiny that came to be hallmarks
of Larkin ’s style.
3. essay writing
‘Church Going’ is one of Larkin’s best-known poems. It also exhibits many
stylistic features typical of his poetry. If you are considering including the poem
in a response to Larkin’s poetry, you might want to consider some of the
following :
a. The poem deals with loss and the passing of time. These are recurrent
themes i n Larkin’s work. You might want to devote an entire paragraph to this
aspect o f his poetry.
b. Once again, Larkin adopts a persona. This is a typical feature of his work.
c. The tone of the speaker’s voice changes during the course of the poem. This
matches the change in his understanding of the role of the Church. Larkin tends
to make subtle use of tone to enhance the overall effect of his poems.
© Cian Hogan
2011
- 20 -
MC MXIV
Those lo ng uneven lines
Standing as patiently
As if the y were stretched outside
The Ova l or V illa Park,
The crowns of hats, the sun 5
10
15
20
25
30
On moustached archaic faces
Grinning as if it were all
An Augu st Bank Holiday lark;
And the shut shops, the bleached
E stablish ed names on the sunblinds, The farthings and sovereigns,
And dark -clothed children at play
Called after kings and queens,
The tin a dvertisements
For coco a and twist, and the pubs W i d e op en all day;
And the countryside not caring:
The plac e-names all hazed over
W i t h fl owering grasses, and fields
Shadowing Domesday lines Under w heat’s restless silence;
The diffe rently-dressed servants
W i t h t i ny rooms in huge houses,
The dust behind limousines;
Never su ch innocence, Never be fore or since,
As changed itself to past
W i t hout a word – the men
Leaving the gardens tidy,
The thousands of marriages Lasting a little while longer:
Never su ch innocence again.
© Cian Hogan
2011
- 21 -
glossary
The ti tl e, ‘ MC MXIV’, i s the year 1914
11 f ar things and sovereigns – types of
represented
coin used at this time.
in
roman
numerals.
Ni ne teen fourteen saw the outbreak of
13 Called after kings and queens –
Worl d War O ne. Noti ce how the rom an
old- fashioned names, such as Albert
numerals
and V ictoria.
lend
the
poem
the
ap pearance of a war monument.
15 c oc oa – a chocolate-flavoured
4 The Oval or V illa Par k – the Oval is
drink.
the headquarter s of English cricket
15 t wist – a twisted roll of tobacco.
and V il l a Park is the home ground of
20 Domesday lines – in 1086,W illiam
the w ell- known English football team
t he Conqueror ordered that all the
Aston V illa. H ere, both these grounds
t er r ito rial divisions of England be
act as metaphors for the class
rec orded. The book in which these
di visi ons i n English soci ety. The uppe r
boundaries were recorded was known
cla ss t raditional ly supports crick et ,
as t he Domesday Book. Domesday is
whil e the lower and middle class es
als o the name given in the Bible to
follow socce r.
Judgement Day.
6 archaic – old-fashioned.
© Cian Hogan
2011
- 22 -
1. Conte nt
‘MC MXIV ’ captures a moment in time before the onset of one of the most
horrendous episodes in human history – World War One. In the opening lines, we
are prese nted with the sight of long queues of men:
S tand i ng as pati entl y
A s if they were stretched outsi de
T he Ov al or Vi l l a Park,
The dist urbing reality, however, is that these men are not queuing for a football
match o r a game of cricket. They are, in fact, standing in line to enlist in a war
from wh ich most of them will not retur n. Their innocence is captured in the
image
of their ‘ archaic faces | Grinning as if it were all | An August Bank
Holiday lark’. In the second stanza, the holiday atmosphere continues to
prevail. T he shops are closed for the long weekend, and the children are at play.
Througho ut this stanza, a number of images highlight the extent to which this
world has vanished. The currency (‘farthings and sovereigns’) has passed into
history. The clothes that the children wear are no longer fashionable and their
names no longer popular. What is not stated, however, is the fact that World War
One will accelerate the pace of this change. In the third stanza, there is a shift
in locati on. We move from the city to the ‘ countryside’. There is a lazy, hazy
feel to th e poet’s depiction of these final days of summer in 1914:
And the countryside not caring:
The place-names all hazed over
With flowering grasses, and fields
In the fo urth line of this stanza, we receive our first indication that all is not well.
The mention of ‘ Domesday lines’ casts a shadow over the poet’s beautiful
descripti on of the countryside. The absence of human voices is replaced by the
sound o f ‘wheat’s restless silence’. In the closing lines of the third stanza, we
are remi nded once again of the class differences that existed in England before
the war. Houses with ‘ differently-dressed servants’ are a thing of the past.
The final stanza expresses in clear terms what was previously implied. The
speaker reminds us that there was:
© Cian Hogan
2011
- 23 -
Nev er such i nnocence,
Nev er bef ore or si nce,
As changed i tsel f to past
The inno cent world that the speaker refers to vanished with the onset of World
War One . In these final days before the war in August 1914, the men remain
ignorant of the fact that their marriages will only ‘[last] a little while longer’.
2. stylistic features
Most critics agree that MCMXIV is a nostalgic poem that laments the passing of
a way of life. The first two stanzas rely on a number of images and quietly stated
to achieve their effect. In particular, the mention of ‘Villa Park’ and
allusions
‘The Ov al ’ highlights the extent to which Britain was divided along class lines
before the war. World War One changed all that. The upper classes suffered as
much as the working class. In fact, the life expectancy of a middle-ranked
officer was less than that of an enlisted soldier. Furthermore, the drain on
manpow er and the social chaos created by the war put an end to the servant–
master relationship that had dominated British life up to 1914. The image
of
‘archaic faces’ with moustaches seems, at first, to refer to specific photographs
but, on closer inspection, it proves to be a representation of our collective
image o f the time. We have all seen the silent newsreels of the era and the
images in the first two stanzas are representative of how we imagine the men of
that period looked. This nostalgic recollection of a world that no longer exists
extends into the third stanza. The depiction of the English countryside in this
stanza is , in Andrew Motion’s opinion, ‘part of a vanished ideal, a better world
than ours, marooned on the wrong side of a colossal war’. The poem moves
slowly, but inevitably, towards the final stanza. The extensive use of the present
participle
– ‘Standing’, ‘Grinning’, ‘caring’, ‘flowering’ and ‘Leaving’ –
suggests an easy, flowing sense of permanence and stability. The poem does
not cont ain a main verb; this fact, coupled with the lack of intrusive punctuation,
reinforces this smooth, flowing sense of continuity. However, all the while, the
spectre of war hangs over the poem. The lives that those men took for granted
are going to be much shorter than the grammar of the poem would suggest. The
men who stand in the queues in the first stanza would later form what became
known a s the ‘pals’ battalions’.Most of these men were to die in the insanity of
the British advances on the German lines in 1916. The Great War was a horrific
fault line in European history. ‘MCMXIV’ is more than a nostalgic trip down
memory lane. It is a poem that memorialises a generation that was virtually
© Cian Hogan
2011
- 24 -
wiped ou t. The roman numerals, along with the shape of the poem, evoke
images of a cenotaph or commemorative monument. Much of the imagery in the
poem is bright and cheerful. However, on closer examination, you should notice
that dark colours, shades and shadows are present in nearly every stanza. There
is also an eerie and foreboding lack of human voices throughout the poem.
3. essay writing
If you are thinking of including ‘MCMXIV’ in your essay, you may wish to
consider the following points:
a. The poem amounts to a powerf ul and emotional depiction of a vanished world.
Nostalgia is a common feature of Larkin’s poetry and you may wish to devote a
paragraph to this aspect of his writing.
b. Unlike many of the poems on the course, Larkin chooses not to adopt the
voice of a persona.
c. The poem is honest and realistic. It does not seek to glorify the patriotism of
those about to die.
© Cian Hogan
2011
- 25 -
The E xpl osion
On the day of the explosion
Shadows pointed towards the pithead:
In the sun the slagheap slept.
Down the lane came men in pitboots
Coughin g oath-edged talk and pipe-smoke, 5
10
15
20
25
Shoulder ing off the freshened silence.
One cha sed after rabbits; lost them;
Came back with a nest of lark’s eggs;
Showed them; lodged them in the grasses.
So they passed in beards and moleskins, Fathers, brothers, nicknames, laughter,
Through the tall gates standing open.
At noon, there came a tremor; cows
Stopped chewing for a second; sun,
Scarfed as in a heat-haze, dimmed. The dead go on before us, they
Are sitting in God’s house in comfort,
We sha l l see them face to face –
Plain as lettering in the chapels
It was sa id, and for a second W i v e s saw men of the explosion
Larger than in life they managed –
Gold as on a coin, or walking
Somehow from the sun towards them,
One sho wing the eggs unbroken. © Cian Hogan
2011
- 26 -
glossary
When
reading
becomes
The
aware
Explosion
that
there
one
is
a
8 l a r k ’s e g g s – t h e e g g s o f t h e
skyla rk, a bird native to England and
pe rcep ti bl e shi ft in the poem, from a
Ireland.
real i st ic account of the disaster, t o a
10 m oleskins – a heavy-duty material
more
wo r n by workmen including miners.
surreal
description
of
the
surv ivors.
15
2 pit head – the top part of a mine
speaker could intend this to mean
including
prot ected from the explosion.
the
shaft
entrance
and
Scarfed
–
wrapped
up.
The
bui ld ings.
3 sl agheap – a man- made hill fo rm ed
from the by- product of coal mining.
4 pi tb oots – heavy w ork boots wor n
by mi ners.
1. Content
Larkin was prompted to write The Explosion
after watching a television
documen tary about the mining industry in 1969. The poem opens with a stark
statement of fact. We lear n that ‘On the day of the explosion | Shadows
pointed towards the pithead’. The mention of shadows alongside the word
‘explosi on’ creates a sense of foreboding. In the first stanza, there is an uneasy
silence, which is only broken by the arrival of the ‘men in pitboots ’ in the
second tercet . These men are lively; they cough ‘ oath-edged talk and pipesmoke’. In the fourth stanza, the men pass through the tall gates of the pithead
wearing ‘moleskins’. By the fifth tercet, it becomes apparent that time has
moved on. The men are now below the surface. It is noon and the first indication
that something has gone horribly wrong is felt when a ‘tremor’ reaches the
surface. The cows stop ‘Chewing for a second ’. However, at this distance
from the explosion, these animals are ‘Scarfed’ or protected from any harm. In
the sixth stanza, which is set off from the rest of the poem by italics, we are
then given an extract from what is presumably the funeral sermon of these men.
Instead o f dwelling on the men’s deaths, this sermon is life affirming.
© Cian Hogan
2011
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We a re p romised that the men:
Are sitting in God’s house in comfort,
We shall see them f ace t o f ace –
In the seventh stanza, the speaker assures us that this message is
unambig uous, that it is as ‘ Plain as lettering in the chapels’. Mysteriously, the
wives of the men see the ‘ men of the explosion | Larger than in life’. The
imagery in the last three lines of the poem is bright and, in this manner, it
reaffirms the notion of life after death. The men are surrounded by light and they
walk tow ards their wives while one of them holds the unbroken lark’s eggs.
2. stylistic features
This beautiful poem evokes a s ense of community that manages to transcend
death. T he men at the heart of the poem are ‘ Fathers’ and ‘ brothers’. They are
working men, and this aspect of their characters is suggested by a number of
indicator s. They wear ‘ pitboots’, ‘moleskins’ and cough ‘ oath-edged talk and
pipesmo ke’. However, for all these rough edges, the men are made to appear
connecte d to their environment. The image of the young man taking the lark’s
nest only to retur n it safely is a moving and tender evocation of gentleness and
care. Fu rthermore, the egg itself has long been symbolic of the cycle of life.
Notice h ow, when the man retur ns, these eggs remain unharmed and unbroken.
In this re spect, we are assured in a subtle manner that despite the impending
disaster, life goes on. The poem manages to suggest that something awful is
about to happen through a number of symbolic associations. The shadows that
point tow ards the pithead are ominous. In a similar fashion, the tall gates that
stand op en can be read as an allusion to the gates of heaven. In a more obvious
fashion, the tremor that disturbs the cows chewing the grass indicates a
powerful , yet distant, explosion. The distant nature of this explosion not only
makes it seem mysterious but, more importantly, it stresses the inexplicable
nature o f the women’s vision of their dead husbands walking towards them. The
poet makes no effort to explain how or why the women could have seen their
husbands, but this vision does seem to be linked to the message that is given
during the funeral sermon. In this sermon, we are assured that the ‘ dead go on
before u s’ a n d t h a t ‘We shall see them face to face’. And, indeed, this is
what ha ppens in the final movement of the poem. ‘Plain as lettering in the
chapels’, the wives see their husbands. In death, the men are completely
© Cian Hogan
2011
- 28 -
transformed. Normally covered in coal dust, the men are now bathed in light. In
a final g esture, one of the men shows the unbroken eggs. The fragility of the
eggs not only suggests the fragility of life itself, but also hints at the frailty of
the bonds of family, society and love that linked the men to this mining
commun ity. Interestingly, the poem’s construction mirrors its theme. The poet’s
use of t ense is,according to the critic Andrew Swarbrick, very effective. He
believes that:
… t he m anipulat ion of tenses (f rom t he cont inuous present t ense of the
p astor’s quoted word s to t he past ‘it was said’ and t he ‘wives saw men’,
a nd forward t o t he p resent part iciples of t he m om ent ary vision) creates
th e logic by which the men walk ‘Som ehow f rom t he sun’, at the very
moment it has ‘dim med ’ f or t he underground explosion. The effect of this
is q uit e m iraculousl y t o annihilat e the m om ent of deat h not by meekly
e d it ing it out of the p oem , but by building it in t o what survives that
moment of death. The men are unbroken like t he eggs. They have
s im p ly p assed ‘Through th e t all gat es st anding open’.
While the use of tenses in the poem works to cancel out the deaths of the men,
Larkin’s use of rhythm creates a solemn, funereal feeling. This continues until
the final line, when suddenly the poet employs a completely different
rhythm.While this creates a sudden and jarring sense of loss, it also suggests
that the men have moved on to a different plane. In this fashion, the reader is
made to feel the full impact of the men’s deaths. The Explosion is unlike most of
the othe r poems by Larkin on the Leaving Certificate course. It treats a
mysterious and spiritual moment of profound loss in a respectful and
unquestioning manner. The ironic tone that dominates so much of Larkin’s work
is absen t. In short, this is a profoundly emotional poem that acknowledges the
possibili ty of life after death.
3. essay writing
If you are thinking of including The Explosion in your essay, you may wish to
consider the following points:
a. The p oem is a powerful and emotional depiction of the fragility of
human li fe. Death, the passing of time and loss are major themes in
Larkin’s poetry. As such, you ma y wish to devote an entire paragraph to
this aspect of his poetry.
b. The la nguage devices employed by Larkin greatly enhance the overall
effect of the poem.
© Cian Hogan
2011
- 29 -
c. The p oet chooses not to include a personal statement or the voice of a
persona in this poem. In this respect, it might be worthwhile comparing and
contra sting ‘The Explosion’ and ‘MCMXIV’.
Sa m p l e E ss ay
In Larkin’s poetry close observations of people, place and events result in
profound and thought provoking moments. Discuss.
In Larkin”s poetry, detailed and accurate descriptions of people, places and events capture the
moment in an uncompromisingly realistic fashion. While his poems can be sneering and
contemptuous of people, places and events, there is something else at work in Larkin’s poetry
that is difficult to ignore. For all their bleak realism, the poems of Larkin that I have studied lead
to profound and thought provoking moments that have challenged some of my most deeply
held beliefs.
Larkin’s poems are at their most interesting and thought-provoking when an unexpected event
provokes the speaker’s curiosity. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the utterly fascinating
poem, “The Whitsun Weddings”. In this poem, the speaker’s close observations of the people
and places of England on a “sunlit Saturday” in June, provide the material for a truly memorable
piece of writing. The poem opens as Larkin”s train pulls slowly out of the station. The rhythm,
syntax and the cadence of the language capture the momentum of the train as it runs “behind
the backs of houses”. In the next stanza, detailed descriptions of the bland English suburbs do
little to prepare us for the profound epiphany that lies at the heart of this poem. As the wedding
couples board the train, the poet at first notices little more than their “whoops and skirls” of
delight. There then follows a series of detailed observations of the wedding parties. Larkin
describes the “grinning and pomaded, girls | In parodies of fashion”. Although his tone is
laced with cynicism, he is also “struck” by the scene that presents itself before him. The next
time he leans out “More promptly [...] more curiously”. Once again, Larkin relies on close
observations of the wedding parties in order to convey his bemusement to us. He describes the
“fathers with broad belts under their suits” and the “mothers load and fat”. The detail,
which includes descriptions of “seamy foreheads” and an “uncle shouting smut” is
uncompromisingly realistic. However, for all its detailed realism, the poem has, at its heart, a
profound and thought-provoking epiphany. As the train gathers speed, Larkin becomes
increasingly affected by the incredible “Traveling coincidence” that has joined all these people
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2011
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Observations
together on this, one of the most important days in their lives. In the poet”s words, this
experience contained:
all the power
That being changed can give.
In order to capture this powerful moment of profound realisation, Larkin turns away form the
detailed descriptions of the first four stanzas. Instead he relies on a wonderful simile to
conclude his poem.
And as the tightened brakes took hold, there swelled
A sense of falling, like an arrow-shower
Sent out of sight, somewhere becoming rain.
Although Larkin professed himself to be highly sceptical about the idea of enduring love, in this
poem there is no denying that he is genuinely struck by the power of the moment.
“An Arundel Tomb” has much in common with “The Whitsun Weddings”. In this poem,
detailed observations of a tomb in Chichester Cathedral in England pave the way for thoughtprovoking conclusions about love, life and death. The poem opens with a detailed depiction of
the “earl and countess” as they “lie stone”. Larkin draws our attention to the “jointed
armour, stiffened pleat” and the “the little dogs under their feet”. It was only when I saw a
photograph of the Arundel Tomb that I realised just how accurate Larkin’s depiction is. As was
the case with the wedding parties in “The Whitsun Weddings”, Larkin at first fails to notice the
full significance of the scene before him. Then, towards the end of the second stanza his
attention is drawn towards the earl’s hand “holding her hand”. This produces a “sharp
tender shock” in the poet. The rest of the poem is a meditation on the true meaning that this
statue now holds. Larkin forces us to consider the lack of clarity surrounding this tomb and
what it has come to symbolise. In particular, he exploits the ambiguity between the two
meanings of the verb to “lie”. A sense of futility hovers around the poem’s conclusion in words
like “helpless”,”scrap”,”attitude”, “Untruth” and “almost”. The fact that Larkin refuses to
dispel the ambiguity that surrounds this poem is most thought-provoking. The detailed
descriptions of the two lovers with their hands clasped together suggest a lasting, even
timeless, relationship. However, we are never allowed to forget that this couple is dead and that
the world they once knew has vanished forever.
The prelude to one of the most shocking and depressing events in European history is
highlighted in Larkin’s unforgettable poem MCMXIV. This powerful poem captures the
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2011
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innocence of a people that would soon be plunged into the most barbaric events in human
history. The opening stanza depicts the “long uneven lines |standing as patiently | As if [...
oustide] | The oval or Villa park”. In this simple description, Larkin captures the all
encompassing nature of the conflict that is come. The wealthy followers of cricket are united
with their poorer football supporting counterparts, in their innocent rush to enlist. The poem is
full of descriptions of the people and places of a long-since vanished United Kingdom. Images
of “shut shops” and “bleached | Established names” are mentioned together with
“farthings and sovereigns”. While the depictions capture the innocence of Britain in the
immediate lead-up to the outbreak of war, the eerie absence of human activity hints at grim
reality of what is to come. The form of poem also helps to reinforce this. The roman numerals
along the poem’s shape, recall the countless cenotaphs and war memorials that were erected
in the aftermath of this horrific conflict. The poem’s final reminds us that the world would never
know “such innocence again”.
Another profoundly thought provoking event captured by Larkin is detailed in his poem
“The Explosion”. The poem takes us to a pit head in the coal district of Wales on the day of a
fatal explosion. The use of foreshadowing in the opening tercet hints at the fate that awaits the
miners. In the next stanza, we meet these men as they come down lane full of life, “Coughing
oath-edged talk and pipe-smoke”. One of men who breaks free from the group to chase a
rabbit, returns with “a nest of lark’s eggs”.
This wonderful symbol of fragility and life is
carefully returned unharmed to the grass by this man. Larkin does not describe the
circumstances in any detail. Instead he chooses to understate the physical reality of what
happened. A “tremor” “at noon” provides us with the only clue that something awful has
happened. Then, in the next stanza which is set off in italics in order to highlights its
significance, Larkin takes us to the dead men’s funeral service:
The dead go on before us, they
Are sitting in God’s house in Comfort,
We shall see them face to face -
The final image of the poem is a truly unforgettable one. The men have died yet they return
“larger than life” “One showing the eggs unbroken”.
From the pit heads of Wales to the suburban England, Larkin provides us with accurate
descriptions of people, places and events. In the process however he causes us to look again
at the world around us. While his poems are often equivocal and ambiguous, they nearly
always lead us to consider some deeply thought-provoking and profound ideas.