Agnosticism in the Poetry of Philip Larkin: A Note on “Church Going”

While focusing on life in general, Philip Larkin attempts to grapple with the contemporary dilemmas and uncertainties. He is concerned with the decline of religion, rampant industrialization, commercialization, the falsity of advertisements, the sexual freedom of the youth, the display of vulgarity and obscenity, cheap dress styles, growing pollution, etc., in the post-war British society. He realistically presents the macrocosm of the post-war British society with all these changes through the lens of the microcosm of   his poetry.

Larkin has poetic commitment to record the events, the incidents and the changes that he observes in his life. Under the influence of Thomas Hardy, he portrays the life around him in the language of common people. As he says, “Hardy taught me to feel rather than to write” (The Listener 11). As a poet of the actual, he records his reactions, feelings and experiences by means of his fastidious observation. He asserts:

I write poems to preserve things I have seen/ thought/felt (if I indicate a composite and complex experience) both for myself and for others, though I feel that my prime responsibility in the experience itself, which I am trying to keep from oblivion for its own sake. Why I should do this I have no idea, but I think the impulse to preserve lies at the bottom of all art (Poets of the 1950’s   77).    

Larkin’s keen observation of follies and foibles marks a unique feature of his poetry. He observes the human scene from ‘a little distance’ and portrays it photographically, making his reader participate in the experience. Alan Brownjohn says:

Larkin’s own position is that of a different kind of observer, standing a little distance away  from the happiness of others, unable to feel affinity with them, yet cautiously assuming such joy they may be able to find (14).  

Larkin presents snapshots of the scene with his humanistic concern, responding to the changes, incidents and events in spite of his stand as a detached observer. The paramount feature of his poetry is that he makes his readers participate in the visual process of looking or beholding the scene he depicts with involvement. Even in the detached state of observation, he shares the joys and sorrows of the people in society as a humanist.

Larkin ascribes the changes in customs, traditions, fashions, lifestyles, etc., which occur on the human scene, to the constant movement of time. Similarly, not only life in general but also the life in the post-war British society in particular is subject to inevitable change in time’s flow. Time does not spare anything to be valid permanently. In its incessant flux, it finds everything in a changed manner. As Lawrence Durrel puts it, “…nothing has permanent value—that is really the message behind them—everything depends upon its context in given system, depends on the way you see it. The identity of opposites precludes any complete or final judgment upon reality.” (37).    

For Larkin, a poem is nothing but an epitome of the actual experiences as he presents the kaleidoscopic details of what he observes in the society around him. He says, “Poetry is an affair of sanity, of seeing things as they are” (New Criticism 368). He presents the realistic picture of changes in beliefs of religion. People in the post war British society have ‘awkward reverence’ for religion. They treat religion as a dogma, as Larkin says in ‘Church Going’. He says that religion seems no longer valid and churches fall out of use in the Post-war British society:

                                   

Wondering what to look for, wondering, too

                                    When Churches fall completely out of use

                                    What we shall turn them into, if we shall keep   

                        A few cathedrals chronically on show

                                    Their parchment, plate and pyx in locked cases

                                    And let the rent-free to rain and sheep

                                    So we avoid them as unlucky places?       

Time infinitely moves and definitely brings about changes in religious beliefs in the post-war British society.  Churches were regularly visited and prayers were offered when they had strong belief in God.  Larkin foresees time-prone reality that Churches will totally become obsolete and ‘fall completely out of use’ in the years to come. The Larkin speaker, the mouthpiece of Larkin himself meditates on the decline of religion. The post-war society British society loses respect or reverence for religion as the people become materialistic and commercial:

                          Up at the holy end, the small neat organ;

                          And a tense, musty, ignorable silence’

                          Brewed God knows how long. Hatless, I take off

                          My cycle-clips in awkward reverence.

The Larkin speaker casually visits a church on his way by bicycle and observes the activities inside the church. He finds that inside the church nothing is going on and it is falling ‘out of use.’ He voices the least concern for the church and its interior, finding himself, “reflect the place was not worth stopping for.”     

People regularly visit churches and duly offer prayers in times of faith in God. However, in contemporary times religion has lost its reverence and seems to be “at the holy end”. Larkin as an agnostic foresees the time-prone reality that churches will be obsolete and ‘fall completely out of use’ in the near future. The future will witness a few cathedrals as mere exhibits in a museum. Cathedrals will be ‘chronically on show’, reflecting the changes in beliefs and religious values. From his agnostic background, he anticipates people to treat religion as mere superstition but not    belief: ‘But superstition, like belief, must die.’ The empty and locked churches are suggestive of lack of belief in religion in an agnostic age like the post-war British society. Ian Currie rightly says, “The power of religion may linger on in a corrupt form as superstition, but even that will eventually disappear” (85).

The Larkin speaker is disappointed with the decline of religion. Bruce Martin says, “We see a man sensitive to the possibility of religion get conditioned by at least a couple of generations of widespread scorn blending into influence towards Christianity” (55). The contemporary man with callous attitude towards religion treats it as a museum or an exhibition of the interior of the church. The values associated with religion become topsy-turvy in the modern times. As a result, the attitude towards religion paves a way to the ‘sleazy quality of objects built not to lose.’

The speaker wonders if churches serve to be mere galleries and architectural designs in their interior for the visitors as traditional values seem to have been lost. Larkin himself expresses the view, referring to his poem, “Church Going”.

It is of course an entirely secular poem—Of course the poem is about going to Church, not religion—I tried to suggest this by the title—and the union of the important stages of human life—birth, marriage and death—that going to Church represents and my own feeling that when they are dispersed into the registry office and crematorium chapel, life will become thinner in consequence (Hamilton 73).    

The purpose of a church is practically gone but the church has value for a different purpose.  It seems it is treated and valued as an historical relic but not as a place for the offer of prayers in the post-war England.  Larkin meditates on the fate of redundant churches.  The locked churches suggest the abandoned condition:

                                    …… Some brass and stuff

                        Up at the holy and the small neat organ;

                         And a tense, musty, unignorable silence,

                        Brewed God knows how long, Hatless, I take off

                        My cycle clips in awkward reverence.

                                                            “Church Going” (CP, (&)

Churches fall to disuse when religion is on decline in the sense that the contemporary people pay a casual visit to them not for offering prayers but for the rituals: birth, marriage and death. So church going has become casual like film-going. The poem, ‘Church Going’ focuses on the abandoned condition of churches and the speaker’s meditation on the fate of redundant churches. Therefore religion in the post-war British society is ‘… vast moth-eaten musical brocade/ Created to pretend we never die.’

The Larkin speaker frequently stops to observe the church in spite of its being ‘not worth stopping’ because he reacts to day-to-day changes as a detached observer. From his agnostic background, he reflects on the increasing lack of reverence for in the age of materialism. As he says, “I don’t want to transcend the commonplace, I love the commonplace life, everyday things are lovely to me” (View Points 124)

The speaker’s reflections on the decline of religion present the fact that an irrevocable faith in human and individual potential counteracts the loss of faith in religion and the lack of concern for the church. Religion seems to be “the holy end” and disappear ultimately in course of the absence of spiritual life is turned desolate in the wake of the absence of spiritual life.  The lack of seriousness in respect of religion is depicted in an ironical tone:

                        A serious house on serious earth it is,

                        In whose blent of air all our compulsions meet,

                        Are recognized, and robed as destinies

                        And that much never can be obsolete.

As a poet and man, Larkin sees time as bringing about a change in everything in its flow. From his agnostic background, he finds such a change in religion. Though he has no commitment to religion, he expresses a kind of hunger:

                      Since someone will forever be surprising

                      A hunger in himself to be more serious

                      And gravitating with it to this ground.

Faith in religion is completely lost in the age of materialism and commercialism. The loss of faith in religion results in agnosticism and turns life desolate. Larkin portrays the abandoned condition of churches and the speaker’s meditation on the fate of redundant churches in ‘Church Going’ to capture the life of his generation and his own.

References

Brownjohn, Alan. Philip Larkin. London: Longman, 1955.

Currie, Ian. Hardy to Heaney: Twentieth Century Poets. Hong Kong: Oliver & Beyed, 1986.

Durrel, Lawrence. Key to Modern Poetry. London, 1952.

Hamilton, Ian. “Four Conversations.” The London Magazine, New Lines 4.8 Nov.1954.

Larkin, “Big Victims”, New Criticism 13 March, 1970, 368.

Larkin, Philip. “Philip Larkin Praises the Poetry of Thomas Hardy.” The Listener 25^th July 1968: 11.

Larkin, Philip. Poets of the 1950’s.  Tokyo: Kenkyusha, 1955.

Larkin, Philip. View Points: Poets in Conversation with John Haffenden. London: Faber& Faber, 1989.

Martin, Bruce. Philip Larkin. Boston, Mass: G K Hall, 1978.

Published in KJES. Vol:32, 2013

Dr. K.Rajamouly,
     Professor of English