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Poetry - How to Write the Essay - Focus on Larkin - Aoife's Notes

Poetry - How to Write the Essay - Focus on Larkin - Aoife's Notes

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Having resp<strong>on</strong>ded emoti<strong>on</strong>ally <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> sight of <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> couple's joined hands, <strong>Larkin</strong> reflects more<br />

dispassi<strong>on</strong>ately <strong>on</strong> <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> changes time has wrought since <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>y died. The world <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> earl and<br />

countess knew has vanished. The 'old tenantry' is no more, and <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> 'endless altered people'<br />

cannot even read <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> Latin inscripti<strong>on</strong> <strong>on</strong> <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>ir <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g>mb. Seas<strong>on</strong>s come and go, and nature<br />

c<strong>on</strong>tinues, unheeding of <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> social and political changes all around. The people viewing <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g><br />

<str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g>mb now may be different <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>ir predecessors, but <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>y – like us - will all end up in '<str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g><br />

same / B<strong>on</strong>e-littered ground.'<br />

The earl and countess did not think <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> 'lie so l<strong>on</strong>g' in view, and <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> poet imagines that <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>y<br />

would never have expected <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> be <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> focus of such public attenti<strong>on</strong>. Probably, he says, <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>y<br />

thought that 'Such faithfulness in effigy / Was just a detail friends would see'. The word 'lie',<br />

of course, has two meanings here. Not <strong>on</strong>ly are <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> couple lying in <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>ir <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g>mb, but <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> idea<br />

that <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>ir love transcends death is most likely a lie <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g>o.<br />

The final stanza of <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> poem does not give us a definitive answer <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> great questi<strong>on</strong>s about<br />

life, love, death and <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> passing of time. The words 'hardly' and 'almost' may suggest that<br />

<strong>Larkin</strong> is less than c<strong>on</strong>vinced by <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> bleak message that love does not transcend death, and<br />

this may in part explain <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> fact that <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> final line of <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> poem: 'What will survive of us is<br />

love' is so often quoted out of c<strong>on</strong>text and taken as a definite statement. I find this<br />

intriguing, and I noticed with interest <strong>on</strong> <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> recent anniversary of <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> attacks <strong>on</strong> <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> World<br />

Trade Centres in New York that an article, written in <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> New Yorker¹ shortly after <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> event,<br />

ended by quoting this final line in resp<strong>on</strong>se <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> an image of two people jumping, hand in<br />

hand, from <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> blazing building. The writer called <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> line 'a celebrated c<strong>on</strong>dolence' and he<br />

clearly felt that 'An Arundel Tomb' shows us that love will most certainly triumph over death.<br />

I w<strong>on</strong>der if it is our need <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> believe this that makes so many readers ignore <strong>Larkin</strong>'s<br />

references <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> futility of life in <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> last stanzas of <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> poem? Ir<strong>on</strong>ically, 'What will survive<br />

of us is love' has become '<str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> final blaz<strong>on</strong>' of this poem, showing that mankind has indeed a<br />

deep need '<str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> prove / Our almost-instinct almost true'.<br />

'An Arundel Tomb' explores <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> idea of change, <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> passage of time and <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> meaning of life<br />

by looking in<str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> past, while <strong>on</strong>e of <strong>Larkin</strong>'s o<str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>r best-loved poems – 'Church Going' – is a<br />

journey in<str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> a possible future in search of answers. Here <strong>Larkin</strong> uses an impromptu visit <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> a<br />

church <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> examine <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> rise of secular values and <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> gradual setting aside of a belief system<br />

which has provided answers <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> life's great questi<strong>on</strong>s for thousands of years.<br />

The ambiguous title of <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> poem gives us our first hint as <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>me. 'Church Going' could<br />

be taken <str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> mean attending church or it could mean that churches are going; <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>y are <strong>on</strong> <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g><br />

way out. <strong>Larkin</strong> w<strong>on</strong>ders what will happen when churches 'fall completely out of use'. Will<br />

<str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>y be kept 'chr<strong>on</strong>ically <strong>on</strong> show' or will <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>y will <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>y fall in<str<strong>on</strong>g>to</str<strong>on</strong>g> ruin and be assimilated by<br />

<str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> natural world, becoming homes for 'rain and sheep'?<br />

Aoife O’Driscoll 2011 Page 16

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