LIFE RACE IN TIME’S EMBRACE (A Davidian)

Life flees with types of trips for elation

To mark as a wonderful creation,

Insightful race in ever moving race

In actions and thoughts, all special in ways.

Man’s life in time’s endless flow.

In life-trips main is the expedition,

Lovely lisp, risky toddle sans tension,

Trek to rise and fall, sure to rise all days

For success, as failure is all disgrace,

Man’s life in time’s endless flow.

Lifeto visit all new, the excursion,

The trip to learn great as education:

Knowledge and wisdom, a bright lift in face,

Reverence as the gift, it surely pays,

Man’s life in time’s endless flow.

Life is the picnic in jubilation

In sightseeing for rejuvenation

All monotony it ready to face

For the traverse in the liveliest pace,

Man’s life in time’s endless flow.

Life, the pilgrimage in adoration

To all deities for their celebration,

For the sojourn ahead to flee in grace,

Ever dwells peace at heart to glow like rays,

Man’s life an in time’s endless flow.

Time reigns life, man leads to destination

Life is flight in sky, voyage on ocean,

Journey on track, all life in time’s embrace,

Travails in travel in annuls’ showcase,

Man’s life in time’s endless flow.

Published

METVERSE MUSE

75th PLATINUM JUBLIEE ISSUE (January 2023)

TRIPLE TIME: ‘PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE’

TRIPLE TIME:

‘PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE’

An overview of Larkin’s view of time

 ………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

Synopsis:

 

            All time-future, present and past-governs life. Life is in function in the three elements of time. Thus, life is a three-handed struggle for its existence. Life in childhood or later looks at the future with all expectations and so on to be fulfilled. In time’s flow, the future turns into the present, teaching man a bitter lesson that all expectations in life never become reality. Man finds the present dry and desolate when the luring future proves to be unpromising in time’s flow. With the thought of the arrival of death in the future, time teaches the lesson of mortality as well as futility inevitable in life. In the present when all are contrary to all expectations, life seems be boring for failures in life and fearful for the awareness of the approach of death. Life is a journey to face the hard realities. The present slips into the past. Larkin thinks that the past is past, gone and forgotten. The past has nothing to do with life in the present. The past, the present and the past are the source of pain and displeasure. Larkin turns pessimistic in life rooted in time with its devastating forces and destroying powers. Life turns illusory in triple time’s reign for multiple changes against wish from agnostic background.      

 

Key Words:

 

Time, future, present, past, life, illusion, struggle, dreams, expectations, hopes, failures, disappointments, better, lesson, mortality, and futility, boring, fear, pain, displeasure, pessimistic, agnostic

 

………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

Research Article:

 

   All time-future, present and past-governs life in its constant flux. Time is man’s element and an integral part of life. Life is a voyage in the ocean of time. Life flows in time and it is therefore rooted in time.

 

            Larkin, both as man and poet, grows conscious of time and observes the changes to occur in life. The concept of time is evident and recurrent throughout his poetry. Time is the nucleus theme, the theme of themes in rich variety. He makes a clear-cut distinction in dealing with the concept of time. His poetic sensibility is shaped by his constant preoccupation with time.

 

      From the agnostic background, Larkin believes in time’s “eroding agents”. He thinks that time in its flow does all actions and functions, kaalah karothi kaaryaani. He concurs with time, “Truly, our element is time” (CP, 106) as it conquers life by its destroying powers and devastating forces.

 

Life is a journey on the evermoving wheels of time. Man grows conscious of time with its endless movement and the changes it brings about in life. Many poets look at time and have diverse perspectives about it. Philip Larkin’s perspective is unique in his approach to time.

 

Larkin lives in the present, expecting the future to bring the harbinger of good fortunes. He experiences all contrary to his expectations in the present about the future. He loses all hopes about the future and thinks that he is wrong in his expectancy,

 

“Always too eager for the future, we

Pick up bad habits of expectancy,

Something is always approaching; every day

Till then we say”.

“Next, Please” (CP, 52)

 

 Larkin looks at life with all hopes, expectations, dreams and all that the future to fulfill as seen from childhood. When he fails to fulfill his expectations and all those, he finds the future uncertain and unpromising. The future turns into the present and he finds in the present a series of clashes between what he expects and what happens to him in all aspects of life. Then our life turns into a series of missed opportunities. Hence life in the present is futile, empty, and desolate. The phrase, “come and choose wrong” (TLD, 44) reflects man’s wrong choice that leads us to the inevitable disappointment in life, “happiness to is going” (TLD, 44).

 

The poet experiences all failures and disappointments in the present and so he finds it dry and desolate. The unpromising future turns into the present void of charm and meaning. In time’s flow the present turns into the past as a store of bitter experiences.

 

In the present, the poet starts to look at the future with no hopes or diminished hopes. He finds life prosaic and dull. He does not like to recall the past with any sentimentality. His recalling of the experiences in the past does not reflect an emotional union between the past and the present in him. He has no emotional attachment to the past. In “Dockery and Son” he speaks of his childhood.  In a nostalgic mood, he tries to see his classrooms at college but finds the doors locked. The locked door is suggestive of his outside status. He recalls his experiences in college with the dean and Dockery. Michael Schimidt is of the view that the poet frequently “presents as an outsider, man without a past to be nostalgic for and without much in the future… an isolated bachelor.”

 

Larkin recalls his experiences in the past without any sentimentality. He treats it as a “forgotten boredom”. He expresses the same view slightly differently as the “unspent” “I Remember, I Remember” (TLD,38).

 

In the poem, “Lines on Young Lady’s Photograph Album”, the poet comments on his girlfriend’s family album. The photos in the past mark a contrast with life in the present. Life in the reign of time as witnessed changes in the album against one’s wish. The relation between the past and the present: “the gap from eye to page”, clearly visible. It is “a past that no one can share” that hurts the viewers in the present as there is a striking difference between the photo in the past and the girl in the present,

 

            That this is a real girl in a real place,

                 …        ….         …        …

Or is it just the past? Those flowers that gate

Simply by being over you

Contract my heart by looking out of date.

                 ‘Lines on Young Lady’s Photograph Album’ TLD, 13

        

The gap between the photo in the past and the girl in the present leaves the viewers to “mourn” in the future too,

 

In short, a past that no one now can share,

No matter whose your future; calm and dry,

It holds you like a heaven, and you lie

Unvariably lovely there,

Smaller and clearer as the years go by.

                ‘Lines on Young Lady’s Photograph Album, TLD,14

 

             There is a comment on a transformation in the name after her marriage. The maiden name before her marriage has nothing to do with the changed name in the present. Her maiden name is for “what we feel now about you then” (TNS, 23). The maiden name is connected to “her beauty and youth” in the past, marking a contrast with name transformed. 

 

Larkin from his agnostic background firmly believes in time and its ceaseless flow to turn the future into the present and the present into the past, “a past that no one now can share” (CP, 78). The past is past, gone, dead, and forgotten in the eternal flux of time.

 

Time is not cyclic as in “Next, Please”, “its/No sooner present than it turns to past / Right to the last” (CP, 52). In time’s flow he realizes that the future is unpromising, the present is dry and desolate and the past forgotten boredom. He treats the past, the present and the future, triple time as the three-fold illusion.

 

Larkin juxtaposes past, present, and future as mutually exclusive concepts. He treats the three elements as distinct parts of time. Time is a destroyer as it has annihilating powers to bring about changes in life against one’s wishes. Once time elapsed and passed will never be repeated or regained. For Eliot and Bergson, time is both the creator and the destroyer as the past enlivens the present and modifies the future:

 

Time present, time past

Are both perhaps present in time future?

And time future contained in time past.

                                                “Burnt Norton” (FQ, 13)

 

The present contains both the past and the future as Lord Krishna counsels Arjuna,

 

Time past and time future

What might have been and what has been

Point to one end, which is always present

                                                            “Burnt Norton” (FQ, 41)

 

For Eliot, the past is not dead. The past is present as Time is cyclic and past is enlivened in the eternal flow of time:

 

You shall not think the past is finished

Or ‘the future before us’

                                    “The Dry Salvages” (FQ, 41)

 

Eliot believes in the sense of unity of the present, the past and the future in multiplicity. The beginning that leads to end marks the beginning,

 

What we call the beginning is often the end

And make an end is to make a beginning.

                                    “Little Gidding” (FQ, 58)

 

Eliot asserts the unity of all the three units: past, present and the future, and believes in the concept: “The end is where we start from” like Bergson who says that the sense of continuity and unity is evident between the past, the present and the future as “unity within multiplicity”.¹

 

Eliot treats time as an eternal present.  Only through time, time is conquered but for Larkin, only through time or in time, life is conquered and made mortal because time advances life to death to put an end to life. Man exists temporarily in human time and dies not to exist again as per the Christian idea of rebirth or renewal. In time’s flow life traverses to death according to Larkin.

 

                                                … … it goes

And leaves what something hidden from us chose

And age, and then the only end of age.

                                                “Dockery and son” (CP, 152)

 

 

Larkin grows conscious of the approach of death in time’s ceaseless movement. The future will bestow on him age and death, ‘the only end of age.’ He looks at future with the sense sadness and uncertainty. Life can never escape the chains of time in its movement. Life journeys through the future to turn into the present. The present invariably turns into the past as life is rooted in time.

      

            Larkin sees the past, the present and the future as distinct elements and discrete units as he finds them mutually exclusive but not mutually oblivious though he feels that life is rooted in time. Thus, he believes that life exists in a linear-time dimension,

                       

Days are where we live.

They come; they wake us

Time and time over.

                                    “Days” (CP, 67)

           

Time flows endlessly turning our lives transient. Time goes on and we live in its domain,

 

Whether or not we use it, it goes

And leaves what something hidden from us chose,

And age, and then the only end of age.

 

In time’s flux, man’s life ultimately advances to culminate in mortality. According to Larkin trees unlike man have restorative power. Trees put on tender leaves and shed them every year to restore by means of their restorative power:

           

The trees are coming into leaf

Like something almost being said;

The recent buds relax and speed,

Their greenness is a kind of grief.

                                    “The Trees” (CP, 166)

 

            The life of is a journey in the domain of time to mark a difference from that of trees of restorative power. Life advances from birth to youth, middle age, old-age, decrepitude and ultimately culminates in death because “life is slow dying” (TWW, 11) as the sign of mortality in the reign of time,

 

Hours giving evidence

Or birth, advance

On death equally slowly.

                                    “Nothing to be said” (CP, 138).

 

 

Time moves endlessly like the train, the wind or the living river in its irreversible motion and advances life from birth to growth, decline and ultimately makes it culminate in death to mark mortality. Larkin grows conscious of the arrival or approach of death in the future. In time’s flow, he finds the present impoverished and the future blighted. Michael Schimidt says, “Larkin juxtaposes impoverished present and blighted future – and death.”2 

 

Death is the end of life. Larkin has firm belief that the future in his life will bestow on him, the end of life in the eternal flux of time. Life is mortal for him but not for poets like Browning, Donne, Eliot, and Bergson life continues even after death. For them, death is the beginning of spiritual life. In Eliot’s view:

 

We die with the dying:

See they depart, we go with them.

We are born constant with the dead:

                                                “Little Gidding”, (FQ, 58)

           

What we call the beginning is often the end

And to make an end is to make a beginning

The end is where we start from.

                                                “Little Gidding”, (FQ, 58)

 

For Larkin, life is transitory and man lives with the consciousness of the inevitable approach of death. In this respect, Larkin is akin to Wolfe who says, “The mystery of strange million-visage time haunts us with the briefness of our days… transience of our existence.”¹⁴ Larkin wakes up to the consciousness of death more in his old age than in middle age as expressed in “Aubade” which was written in his old age,

                       

“Most things may never happen: this one will”

                                                            “Aubade” (CP, 208)

 

Time has dramatic function in bringing about changes in life that traverses in its reign from birth to death to turn mortal on one hand and futile on the other when man fails to fulfill his promises, leading to futility and nullity.

 

All time – the past, the present and the future – brings no comfort. As P. R. King says, “… We are also time’s accomplices in the sense that we ourselves employ time as an instrument with which to deceive ourselves….”⁴ The poem, “Triple Time” presents the fact that all time – the past, the present and the future – being a source of disappointment and discomfort, serves as “a three-fold illusion”⁵. Here Larkin seems to echo Hume’s theory: “time is evil and illusory”⁶.

 

            “Triple Time” presents the fact that all time – the past, the present and the future – being a source of disappointment and discomfort, serves as “a three-fold illusion”⁵. Here Larkin seems to echo Hume’s theory: “time is evil and illusory”⁶. Time which serves as a three-fold illusion is recurrent in Larkin’s poetry.

 

“Triple Time” also presents Larkin’s attitude towards time.  The dreariness and emptiness of the present are evoked by the “empty-street” and “indistinct” air.  The present is “A time traditionally soured/ A time unrecommended by event” (TLD, 35) as our expectations go wrong in reality. We think of the future to be the harbinger of good fortunes. We hope that the future, “adult enterprise” (TLD, 35) will be successful in making our dreams true but fail miserably. The present “on another day will be the past” (TLD, 35), a frustrated past: “A valley cropped up fat neglected chances”. We witness the “inevitable decrease” (TLD, 35) and decline in our lives.

 

The poem “Triple Time” states the fact that neither the past nor the future bestows on our present the sense of meaning because time turns our lives into futility. Then we feel life is illusory as it is a series of illusions. Life turns to be the illusion of illusions. He treats life as a three-fold illusion result of illusionary nature of triple time. He feels no attachment with the past that is past and uneventful.

 

Larkin’s idea of time entails a great mystery and reflects the fact that the secrets and wonders of time remain unknown. Time has attracted many literary minds for ages in different ways. How to measure, how it moves and brings about changes; and how it shatters our desires, aims, dreams and pretensions in our lives are significant factors to be discussed.

                                                             TRIVENI, December 2023

                                

               Works Cited:

             Larkin, Collected Poems :Philip Larkin, London, The Marvell Press, 1988

             ………. The North Ship (TNS), London. Fortune Press, 1945

             ……….The Less Deceived (TLD), Yorkshire, Marvell Press, 1955

             …….…The Whitsun Weddings (TWW), London, Faber Faber, 1964

            .……….High Windows (HW), London: Faber Faber, 1974                                                     

1.     Hans Meyerhoff, Time in Literature, (London:University of California Press, 1974) 15

2.     Michel Schmidt, 50 Modern British Poets, (London: Heinman, 1979) 334.

3.     Ibid , 334

4.     P. R. King, Nine contemporary poets, (: Methuen, 1979) 7.

5.     Ibid 7

6.     Hans Meyerhoff, Time in Literature, (London: University of California Press, 1974) 31.

Published: Triveni 2023, Jan-Mar.

The Scientist

This is the age of science and technology when the scientist

poses superior to others and does not care for others as he

feels far above all others. He feels haughty and boorish for his

scientific advancement and technological progress. He never

cares for all others who are equally authoritative in their

respective fields. He thinks that he has bombs in his hands.

He can kill all his enemies and all if he wants as his bomb is

able to spoil ten worlds including the earth. He thinks that he

can do wonders but does not know that he does blunders too.

He knows “how to fly in the sky and swim in the sea but he

doesn’t know how to walk on earth.” It means that he forgets

how to behave on earth like man to be human and humanistic

to reflect humanity.

There was a clash between Dr. Sputnik and others in

various fields like philosophy, art, and literature. He

challenged all of them to display their powers. Others were

not ready to display their powers to compete with him. He

posed superior to others. One day he happened to meet Mr.

Vedanth, the most reputed philosopher, and had a deep

discussion with him.

When Mr. Vedanth told many things about philosophy

and its supremacy over all other subjects including science

and technology that help the man invent a bomb that is able

to destroy the whole world today. We are not willing to lose

any civilization, any culture and any heritage in the name of

world war to result in human loss. The war knows only

violence and the loss of all that are to reflect the merit of man.

For that, we have to preserve man to preserve all these to his 

credit. What we want are peace and harmony, values and

virtues and so on but not bombs and clashes, violence and

unrest and so on. Dr. Sputnik did not agree with him in any

aspect on the one hand and challenged him to the exhibition

of his powers for a success on the other.

Dr. Sputnik invited the philosopher, Mr. Vedanth to his

house to learn his powers the following morning. He was

ready to come to his house.

Mr. Vedanth was at the magnificent mansion of Dr.

Sputnik. It was in a building with infinite floors. It all

appeared to touch the sky as it was in the most gigantic

stature. He was at the gate that was also very big. He did not

know how to enter. He stood there humbly. Immediately the

doll of a parrot came out of a box fixed on the gate to invite

him in a polite manner.

‘Hello, Good Morning...my dear guest...’

‘Very Good morning...,’ said Vedanth

‘Welcome...welcome...welcome...welcome...welcome...,’

said the doll.

‘Thank you... Say once more... Say “welcome”... Your

voice is very melodious...,’ said Mr. Vedanth.

‘Thank you...welcome...welcome...welcome...welcome...,’

said the doll.

‘Very sweet welcome...,’ said Vedanth.

The gate was slowly opening while the sweet music was

going on. It was very sonorous and melodious to listen to.

His heart was rejoicing a lot. His happiness knew no bounds

for he was delighted with the music.

Vedanth was at the door. The door was opening

automatically. A hit song was playing to welcome him...

Meanwhile, Dr. Sputnik came forward to receive him

cordially. He said with all pride,

‘Welcome to you...’

‘Thank you...,’ said Vedanth.

‘Mr. Vedanth, this is my lab of wonders... I can show

you all my contributions to science and technology,’ said

Sputnik.

‘Very good...Congratulations...,’ said Vedanth.

‘Thank you... Let’s first visit the three dolls to speak

three different languages-international language, national

language, and regional language... Listen...We find them

wishing us “Good Morning”, “namaskar”, “namaskaramulu”

twice with folded hands,’ said Sputnik.

‘We too wish you with folded hands...It is our custom...,’

said Vedanth.

‘Let’s watch the wonders of this lab...Here is a peacock.

See how it dances very gracefully when music goes on...,’ said

Sputnik.

‘Very wonderful...wonderful indeed...it dances more

gracefully than the real peacock...,’ said Vedanth.

‘Please stand here...without any motion...The small

robot will tell your temperature, your weight, your heartbeat,

your blood pressure level and your horoscope...,’ said

Sputnik.

‘This is your temperature...This is your weight...This is

your heartbeat...This is your blood pressure...This is your

horoscope...,’ said the robot sending out a report through a

window.

‘Very wonderful...,’ said Vedanth.

‘You can see many more wonders...one after the

other...I’ve various kinds of scientific equipment. I’ve

prepared for all this by spending a lot and using my science

brain. I’ve invested millions in this...,‘ said Sputnik.

‘All are very wonderful...I heartily congratulate you on

your contributions and their performances...You’re indeed

great...I appreciate you in all respects. I’ve appreciated the

bombs scientists invented in the age of science and

technology. The bombs used in the Second World War were a

thousand times more powerful than the ones used in the First

World War. The bombs which we have today are a billion

times more powerful than the ones used in the Second World

War. The countries that have bombs are proud of themselves.

If we use a bomb in the war-field today, there will be colossal

loss. It can never save any life and man’s race or any race on

earth. This credit goes to the scientist like you...,’ said

Vedanth.

‘I gave an idea...a tiny inkling to them. I was the key

person in the manufacturing of bombs. For that I was highly

felicitated...Now my country is on par with the advanced

countries.’ said Sputnik with pride and honour.

‘Bombs for wars are there in the pockets but ideas about

peace are at the heart...It is like sleeping with the bombs

under the pillows and with our heads on pillows,’ said

Vedanth.

‘All these are the products of science and

technology...These are few among the many with me to my

credit as a sign of my merit in the modern age...I’ve shown

some to you... some samples. Next time you can see many

more...,’ said Sputnik, welcoming Mr. Vedanth for tea.

‘What would you like to have...coffee or else tea... or

cocktail i.e. coffee and tea together... Here are their

buttons...coffee, tea, cocktail, sugar, etc. Here is the number

button...What do you want...?’ said Sputnik.

‘Let’s have coffee...,’ said Vedanth.

‘I touch the coffee button and the number button...I

touch ‘two’. Here we find two cups of relishing hot

coffee...Okay these are not coffee cups but cups of coffee.

Please have...,’ said Sputnik.

‘Yes, it’s very fine... very fine... very tasty... very

delicious...Its flavour is super...

unsurpassed...Congratulations...on your unfailing

adventures...,’ said Vedanth when he had coffee with all

praises to the scientist.

‘Thank you...,’ said Sputnik with all pride.

While Vedanth was going to the door, He heard the

words in the melodious tone, ‘Thank you...u...u...u... Thank

you...u...u...’ Then Sputnik sent him off, waving. He was

haughty in pose and unrivalled in contribution to science

while bidding goodbye to his philosopher-guest, Vedanth

who was approaching the gate. Again, the doll of a parrot

came out of the box and said in the echoing voice,

‘Thank you very much for your visit... Visit again... Visit

again... Visit again... Visit again...Visit again...Visit again and

again.’

‘Very sweet voice...Say “visit again” again...’ said

Vedanth.

‘Visit again...Visit again...Visit again...Visit again...Visit

again...Visit again ‘ said the doll of a parrot as per the wish of

Vedanth.

The next morning, an uninvited guest with his four

companions was at the gate of Sputnik. The doll of a parrot

came out of the box welcomed them, saying,

‘Hello, Good Morning...my dear guest...’

‘Very Good morning...,’ said the uninvited guest with

the companions.

‘Welcome...welcome...welcome...welcome...welcome...’

‘Thank you... Say once more...say, “Welcome”... Your

voice is very melodious...,’ said the uninvited guests

‘Thank you...welcome...welcome...welcome...welcome...’

‘Very sweet welcome...,’ said the uninvited guests.

The gate was slowly opening while the sonorous music

was going on. It was very melodious to listen to. Their hearts

were rejoicing in it a lot. Their happiness knew no bounds for

they were delighted with the music.

The five uninvited guests were at the door. The door

was opening automatically. A super hit song was welcoming

them...Meanwhile Dr. Sputnik came forward to receive them

cordially. He said with all pride,

‘Welcome to you...’

‘Thank you...’

Sputnik received the guests cordially though they were

not invited. Sputnik was suspecting them, as they looked

different. They followed him to the exhibits one after the

other. They followed him to the small robot to greet them in

three languages. The situation appeared favourable for them

to steal all the valuables. Two were ready with guns in their

hands to shoot Sputnik if he prevented them from stealing.

They were filling all the scientific valuable exhibits and all

kinds of scientific equipment in their bags. Then Sputnik was

shocked when he found them stealing...He said,

‘O! Don’t take them...’

‘Shut up...’ said the uninvited guests with the guns

aiming at him.

‘You, thieves...Who invited you...? I didn’t invite

you...You’re uninvited guests... What are you taking? All the

things are my life... I spent my life inventing or preparing all

these things... Don’t take them away...They are my near and

dear...,’ said Sputnik humbly.

‘Shut up... Do you want to live or not...? If you want

life...Shut up...Keep quiet... lest your life fly away to the sky,’

said the uninvited guests.

‘Don’t take anything...I can’t buy them again in my life...

They cost millions and millions...,’ said Sputnik with folded

hands, crying like anything.

Sputnik’s wife heard this and came to him crying. They

threatened Sputnik and his wife, filled all the valuable things

in his bags and were ready to go away.

‘Please...Don’t take them...’ said his wife, touching their

feet while her husband Sputnik was trying to call the police.

‘Whom are you calling?’ said they and snatched the

smart phone from him.

All thought that the uninvited guests were thieves from

nowhere. They stole all the money when they found it in a

box and were going. Sputnik and his wife followed them to

the door, saying

‘For God’s sake...don’t take anything....’

They tried their best, but it was in vain. While the

thieves were approaching the door, they heard the words in

the melodious music, ‘Thank you’. Then Sputnik was

unhappy and sad. He felt insulted and humiliated for the loss

of his contributions to science while his wife was weeping all

the time. Again, the doll of a parrot came out of the box and

said to the thieves in the voice to resonate,

‘Thank you very much for your visit...Visit again...Visit

again...Visit again...Visit again...Visit again...Visit again and

again.’

‘Very sweet voice...Say “visit again” again...,’ said the

thieves.

‘Visit again...Visit again...Visit again...Visit again...Visit

again...’ said the doll of a parrot considering their request.

Sputnik and his wife fell in the ocean of tears. All his

poses vanished, and his glory diminished against his

expectations. They tried to get them back with the help of the

police, but all their trials went futile. The things and the fame

he enjoyed were not long lasting. He wanted to own them

ever but failed to do so. Pride goes before destruction or a

great loss, an irreparable loss.

Volume 7 - Issue 2 - Jan-Mar 2023

Authors Press