Themes in Philip Larkin's poetry

THEMES IN PHILIP LARKIN'S POETRY

Theme is derived from the Greek words “Proposition, Deposit". According to a

Dictionary of Literary Terms by MARTIN GRAY:

"Theme is the abstract subject of a work, its central idea or ideas, which may or may
not be explicit or obvious. A text may contain several themes or thematic interests."

For example : it can be argued that Shakespeare’s King Lear (c.1605)touches upon
all the following themes; rashness, evil, the nature of truth, appearance and reality,
kinship, sexuality, ingratitude, selfishness, and so on.

PHILIP LARKIN's poetry has a variety of themes: such as religion, melancholy,

pessimism, realism, isolation, love, nature, social chaos, alienation, boredom, death,
time and sex etc. Some critics have pointed out the narrowness of his range of
themes, while his admirers have expressed their praise for his distinctive treatment
of these themes but his limited work has unlimited depth. There are many themes in
his poetry which are as follow:

I. Religion is the most prominent and dominant theme of his poetry. Larkin has
composed his poetry in the context of his temperament and of his personal views on
life, religion, and religious dogmas. He shares his thoughts about God, religion and
the existing scenario of religious beliefs of different classes of society in one of his
poems, ‘Church Going’ in a realistic manner. His poem ‘Church Going’ chronicles the
account of that time, when people had become suspicious of the existence of God
and religion. Larkin’s sarcasm is seen from the very first line of the poem:

“Once I am sure there's nothing going on.”

The description of the church would be familiar to anyone who has visited a small
parish church in Britain. The layout is typical of the architecture prevalent in the
Church of England, with a central aisle flanked by wooden pews with cushioned
kneelers and prayer books placed in small shelves on the backs of the pews. An
altar rail separates the sanctuary on the east end from the rest of the church. Behind
the altar rail one sees a pulpit on the left, a lectern on the right, and in the centre a
large altar or communion table. Large Bibles are normally kept open to the day's
reading on both pulpit and lectern. Although the narrator himself is not an active
member of the Church, he nonetheless mounts the lectern and reads the lesson,
even closing with the words "Here ended the lesson," (which would not be in the
Bible itself -- suggesting the narrator recalls them from memory) precisely as a lay
reader would during a service. He then returns to his persona as a non-religious
tourist, dropping a sixpence (roughly equivalent to a quarter in U.S. terms) into the
collection box and signing the visitor book. The narrator resolves this contradiction
with an understanding that the value of churches and religion lies in what he calls
their seriousness, or their long tradition of being a place concerned with the great
and meaningful issues of life and death, as opposed to the ordinary and every day.
The narrator finally understands his own reason for seeking out churches and the
purpose of the churches he seeks in the final two stanzas:

“It pleases me to stand in silence here; / A serious house on serious earth it is, ... /
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 ...”

ii. Melancholy which means "a deep feeling of sadness that lasts for a long time and
often cannot be explained”. Melancholy embraces all his themes. This is also the
most prominent and dominant theme of his poetry. It is because of his incurable
pessimistic attitude. ERIC HOMBERGER, in 'The Art of the Real ' describes him as:

"The saddest heart in the post war supermarket".

LARKIN's attitude in his poem “Ambulances" is pessimistic with an atmosphere of

pathos and melancholy hovering over it. The poem shows the
hollowness and emptiness of modern man who has no time to show love and
sympathy for a sick man, he says:

"And sense the solving emptiness / That lays just under all we do."

That modern man is devoid of sympathy, he only pays lip service for the sick man,
but no practical solution.

iii. The element of Chaos which means "a state of complete confusion and lack of
order" and Destruction is distinct in LARKIN's poetry, as his poem MCMXIV (1914) .It
illuminates the poet's impression of the post war world. LARKIN fails to come out of
the horrors of war. His poetry revolves around the disastrous and chaotic effects of
war. He minutely observes the chaotic social, political, economic and theological
system. He discusses the chaotic situation in which people were forced to migrate to
villages in search of shelter. LARKIN sympathises with the lost generation and
criticizes at the craze for war.

iv. His poem, "Church Going “shows Nihilism which means ''a philosophical doctrine
that suggests the lack of belief in one or more reputedly meaningful aspects of
life'' and Pessimism which means ''a state of mind in which one anticipates
undesirable outcomes or believes that the evil or hardships in life outweigh the good
or luxuries.'' ANDREW MOTION says that:

"Larkin has often been regarded as a hopeless, inflexible pessimist"

Church Going deals with contemporary agnosticism. The narrator in this poem is
very sceptical about churches. LARKIN's dilemma is not whether to believe in God or
not, but what a man can replace with God. Though the 'Church' is the symbol of
faith, peace and purity yet in the modern age people have lost faith in Church. He
says:

"Who will be the last, the very / Last to seek this place for what It was."
And further he says that:

"Shall we avoid them as unlucky places?”

As for as the nihilism is concerned, LARKIN talks about the negation of life and
shows his disgust with the modern civilization.

v. Realism is also a dominant theme in LARKIN's poetry. In Church Going, it shows

the disintegration of religion and church as an institution, that people are losing faith
in existing Church and Christianity. And Church has failed to prove its importance
and value in the society. In "Mr. Bleaney", Larkin has described the life of an ordinary
man. Mr. Bleaney is actually a post war tattered person who doesn't realise the
importance of time. He observes that the room is dirty and there is no room for
books. It also contains autobiographical elements. MCMXIV is based on reality, it
shows the condition of people just before the war, it also highlights the miserable
condition of the people whereas , the people are simple and innocent the title of the
poem also stresses that the era of peace before war can never be retreated. He
says:

“Those long uneven lines standing as patiently / As if they were stretched outside the
Oval and Villa Park.”

"Ambulances" is also a very realistic poem, it shows the picture of post war world,
where people are sick and dying day and night.

vi. Loneliness and Alienation which means "a sense of not belonging, either to a
community or to one's own sense of self" are the recurrent themes of LARKIN. His
poem "Mr. Bleaney" is about the wretched plight of modern man and its
pleasures. MR. Bleaney lives in abject poverty because of economic pressures. The
poet satirises at the modern civilization which is going to dogs. It is full of chaos and
there is no hope for betterment in the life of a common man.

vii. Love is another significant theme of his poetry. He regards love as a supreme
illusion. Love comes in the guise of melancholy. His poetry shows that modern man
has no love and sympathy for others. So, he doesn't depict love as very ardent or
satisfying passion. He believes that every one is sure to be disappointed in love. His
poem "No Road" depicts the impossibility of the fulfilment of love. He always tries to
explore the gap between what one expects in love and what he receives in it as MR.
BLEANEY and the man in Ambulance both are deprived of love in their lives.

viii. LARKIN's pessimism leads him to contemplate about Death. It is the dominant
theme in his poetry. His imagination is always gripped with the idea of death which
made him a contemplative soul. Almost every critic noted his obsession with death.
He emphasizes on the omnipresence of death. His poem "Ambulances “represents
death. He says that the busy routine of an urban neighbourhood is disturbed by the
sudden emergence of an ambulance. ANDREW MOTION remarks:

“The poem "Ambulances" modestly and devoutly collects evidence of ordinary life to
create a truth which can be universally acknowledged.”
 The sight of the graves makes a man wiser therefore every grave reminds the
thoughts of death. It is ‘Ambulances’, however, that provides us with the bluntest
depiction of human mortality, with its vivid descriptions of illness and death. The
poem exposes:

“The solving emptiness / That lies just under all we do.”

Death itself figures as a subject in'Aubade' He works all day long and drinks at night
while 'unresting death ‘draws nearer to him every day and his mind is blank without
any thought about how and when he will die. Work may also help to combat the
thought of death, but it cannot stave it off. So, the poet says in ‘Toad Revised':

"Give me your arm, old toad: / Help me down Cametry Road."

ix. The theme of Boredom and Sadness also rules over LARKIN's poetry.
Insignificance of man is described in his poem going. LARKIN writes in 'Dockery and
Son' that 'life is first boredom'. His rejection of life was due to the fact that it never
exercised any fascination for him. He says:

"Whether or not we use it life, it goes.”

Again, in "Dockery and Son”, he says:

"Childhood for him was a forgotten boredom."

x. Nature is represented in Larkin’s poetry as impersonal and neutral. He doesn't

take nature as holy mother; rather it comes in the clock of chaos and destruction. He
says:

"Nature is impersonal and neutral."

So, he doesn't highlight the beauty of nature but he only gives the description of
canals, civic life, village and industry. However, he imparts a moralizing power to
nature as he says that the trees don't allow people to believe in their immortality. The
trees renew themselves every year and invite men to follow their example of
refreshing the life.

xi. LARKIN's poetry reveals his awareness of the passing of Time, that's why he
considers that the man is a salve of time. He vividly discusses the adverse effects of
time on man. Like HARDY, he is obsessed with the destructive nature of time. The
three phases of time, present, past and future are mutually exclusive but not
oblivious. He says himself in "Reference Back":

"Though our element is time, / We are not suited to the long perspectives / Open at
each instant of our lives. / They link us to our losses."

Deep and profound is the influence of the social and political atmosphere of his time
on Larkin’s poetry. Larkin’s realistic approach towards his Time makes him write
what he has written. We can see the true portrait of the post-war England in Larkin’s
collection of poetry, or it can be said that his poetry is greatly reinforced by the
cataclysmic scenario of post-war England.

Time links us to our past. The dreams and hopes which we fondly cherished are
blasted as we grow old and we are overcome with a sense of loss. "There is a
double cruelty in time'. P.R. KING Comments:

"It both reminds us what we might have had, and turns what we do have into a sense
of disappointment."

xii. Sex is one of Larkin’s main themes. He talks about people doing it, his lack of it,
and his desperate desire for some of it. Larkin obviously isn’t getting any sexual
fulfilment from anyone and he is unafraid to show that. BRUCE MEYER, a poetry
critic, said of Larkin’s book High WINDOWS,

“Larkin’s poetry shows his pathetic and unattainable desires for love, passion, and
human contact.”

Another thing that LARKIN's poetry does is make people relate to his problems and
feelings and also desire the things he wants. LARKIN invokes his own jealousy of
people who are having sex upon his readers. LARKIN targets people who aren’t
getting sexual fulfilment and makes them feel the same way he does: unhappy with
their current predicament (not having sex) and possessing a desire to change this
situation. Again BRUCE MEYER, “High Windows is about the sexual

“When I see a couple of kids / And guess he’s fucking her… Everyone old has
dreamed of all their lives- Bonds and gestures pushed to one side.”

In the end, one can say that LARKIN, being a modern poet, has taken up the themes
of religion, melancholy, pessimism, realism, isolation, love, nature, social chaos,
alienation, boredom, death, time and sex in his poetry. This approach is quite clear
from his treatment of the questions of belief knowledge and perceptions. All these
things were necessary because of the conditions of Post War England and also his
treatment of these themes is very unique, realistic and convincing