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
25th 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
Professor of English
