Church Going

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Church Going Philip Larkin

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THANK YOU Mary and Adrian Wells, Somerset, UK.

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THANK YOU Mike and Margaret Tanworth-in-Arden, Warwickshire, UK.

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Philip Arthur Larkin (9 Aug 1922 - 2 Dec. 1985) is widely regarded as one of the great English poets of the latter half of the twentieth century.

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Church Going

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Once I am sure there's nothing going on I step inside, 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 Up at the holy end; 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,

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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 lectern , I peruse a few Hectoring large-scale verses, and pronounce 'Here endeth' much more loudly than I'd meant. The echoes snigger briefly. Back at the door I sign the book, donate an Irish sixpence, Reflect the place was not worth stopping for.

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Yet stop I did: in fact I often do, And always end much at a loss like this, 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 rest rent-free to rain and sheep. Shall we avoid them as unlucky places?

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Or, after dark, will dubious women come To make their children touch a particular stone ; 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 superstition, like belief, must die, And what remains when disbelief has gone? Grass, weedy pavement, brambles, buttress , sky,

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A shape less recognizable each week, A purpose more obscure. I wonder who Will be the last, the very last, to seek This place for what it was; one of the crew That tap and jot and know what rood-lofts were? Some ruin-bibber, randy for antique, Or Christmas-addict, counting on a whiff Of gown-and-bands and organ-pipes and myrrh? Or will he be my representative,

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Bored, uninformed, knowing the ghostly silt Dispersed, yet tending to this cross of ground Through suburb scrub because it held unspilt So long and equably what since is found Only in separation - marriage, and birth, And death, and thoughts of these - for whom was built This special shell? For, though I've no idea What this accoutred frowsty barn is worth, It pleases me to stand in silence here;

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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, he once heard, was proper to grow wise in, If only that so many dead lie round.

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Wells Cathedral

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Adrain and Mary, Wells Cathedral, Sunset.

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Wells Cathedral

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Wells Cathedral

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Church of England, Tanworth-in-Arden

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Font, Salisbury Cathedral

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Wells Cathedral Roof

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Salisbury Cathedral, Lectern

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Salisbury Cathedral, Lectern

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Wells Cathedral Roof

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Church of England, Tanworth-in-Arden

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An old Church in London has become…

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A Muslim School for girls

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Tintern Abbey, Wales

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Salisbury Cathedral

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Tintern Abbey, Wales

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Wells Cathedral

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With the Right Revd Peter Price, Bishop of Bath & Wells

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Summary http://www.eliteskills.com

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Philip Larkin’s Church Going describes the idle curiosity of the poet/speaker for a church he comes across while out for a bike ride. It consists of 7 stanzas, each 9 lines in length.The meter is a relaxed iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme is ababcbdgb with numerous slant rhymes appearing in lines 5 - 9. The language is typical of Larkin - ordinary, conversational, almost slangy. The speaker wants to be sure there is nothing in the way of a church service going on. He appears more interested in the building than in the movement that brought it about. He demonstrates awkward reverence removing his hat and cuff clips. Apparently he has stopped at a number of churches. He describes this one as ‘Another church’ and makes note of ‘matting, seats, and stone, / And little books, sprawlings of flowers cut / For Sunday, brownish now.’ He seems uninterested in the denomination of the church.

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In stanza 2 he moves forward, rubbing a hand over the baptismal font, speculating on the condition of the roof, climbs the lectern and says, ‘Here endeth’ more loudly than he had intended to. Returning to the entrance, he signs the guest book and contributes a foreign coin to the collection box, thinking the place was not worth stopping for. In stanza 3 he questions his curious habit of stopping at churches. Once they have become totally useless, will officials keep open some cathedrals and leave the smaller churches to rain and sheep? Will cathedrals become tourist traps and these smaller churches become attractions for ruin seekers, antique hounds, and mothers perpetuating superstitions and seeking simples (medicinal plants) to cure cancer?

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It becomes clear that the title has more than one meaning. Churches were built for the once large numbers of believers who attended every Sunday, but those numbers are rapidly reducing themselves. Marriages are gradually shifting to legal events performed by lay people if indeed people don’t merely choose to live together without ceremony. The same situation is replacing the elaborate requiems and funerals of earlier ages. As time goes on, the Church is playing a role of less importance in society, politics, and world events. Finally there are people like the poet/speaker - curious but not trained in history or architecture, who are church goers but are unencumbered by religion. The Church may be said to be going fast. Still Larkin’s speaker (who speaks for Larkin) cannot totally reject the human religious movement that dominated history until the twentieth century. ‘A serious house on serious earth it is.’ And think of all the many dead who lie round.

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Analysis http://www.eliteskills.com Four different views

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In my view, Philip Larkin is trying to answer a simple question: "What is the meaning of the Church/Religion?", rather the meaning of life. And this question is answered towards the end of the poem, i.e., Religion is not only for rituals. As we see in Stanza 7, Larkin mentions that people would only come to Church in times of separation - Marriage, Birth and death, as each have a certain number of rituals to be performed before concluding the event. And people come only to attend these rituals, and not to connect with God. In my view, The true reason for religion is to establish a deep, spiritual connection with God. But this idea has been long forgotten by Humanity, and this is very much visible in this poem.

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This poem was written during the mid 1900\'s, a time when people began losing faith in God and religion and felt less necessary the need for attending church services. Larkin tries to express his own hunger for satisfaction through the poem, going from church to church in search of truth - purpose of the existence of such a building. he donates an Irish six pence before leaving which could be interpreted in two ways. Either he felt that the place was useless to him in his quest and gave it some thing that had no value of currency at that time; or he felt that it did have something to offer as in those days though irish six pence had no monetary value, it was commonly given as a gift. what remains when disbelief is gone: grass, signifying the earth on which we are born; weedy pavement - the path we must tread which is not smooth and full of brambles and thorns along the way; buttress referring to the church and religion which gives us hope and strength to continue on and the sky - heavens- our ultimate goal through all the struggle.

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I'm an atheist. I've known this poem for a while now, and I keep coming back to it. I think I know exactly what Larking means when he describes the two-way pull of stepping into and old church. I feel alienated and unsatisfied by the religious trappings, but must remember that this is the place where all of the important things of life have been focussed for centuries. That leaves a tangible atmosphere to the place, even though I can't go along with it; it\'s just not good enough any more. Disbelief does not offer this warm, easy comfort of ancient solidity and community acceptance, but a cooler and fresher take on the important things. For me, the poem shows that we can never completely get rid of our in-built sense of something beyond ourselves, even if we know it\'s not really there. A great piece of work, I think.

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This poem expresses two sentiments. Though we may do away with religion and perhaps even the idea of god, we will always value "transcendence and the luminous." There will happen upon each the need to seriously answer what religion once so easily answered for some of us ‘What is the meaning of (my) life?’

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Acknowledgement Adrian I’Anson Prebendary, Wells Cathedral, Wells, Somerset, UK. http://www.wellscathedral.org.uk/whos-who-contact/the-cathedral-chapter/prebendary-adrian-ianson/