Just to appreciate churchs a little, I think this is the most beautiful one of all. The Basilica!
Friday, November 29, 2013
"Church going" - Philip Larkin
Fortunately, this poem actually put me in a better mood than the last one. I found myself laughing at some of the lines because they remind me of exactly what I noticed when I attended church. Although I don't visit as frequently as I used too, if you go to church, you know that it is a completely different experience going when there is no mass being held. The silence is scary, and even your footsteps echo as you walk down the isle. As a family tradition, every time we go on vacation, we visit the local church in the area to say a prayer. One line that I liked in particular was, "Another church: matting, seats, and stone." This line amused me because it is very true. No matter what church you walk into, all have some of the same characteristics. It is almost comforting in a way. If you go to church a lot, it could almost be like a home away from home. In addition to that, he mentioned.. "Up at the holy end, the small neat organ." First of all.. hahahaha to the "holy end" comment. I thought it was hysterical that he described the alter this way. I guess it makes sense completely, but I still think it way very funny that he called it that. In the first paragraph, in addition to the many lines that made me laugh, "And a tense, musty, unignorable silence." The reason I liked this line so much is because I can relate to it greatly. Every time I walk into the church, the atmosphere makes me tense up. I know that it is a relaxing and holy place, but for some reason.. it might just be that musty smell.. I am always noticing my hands sweating and my posture straightening. Overall, I really enjoyed reading Larkin's poem not only because I could relate to it, but it made me think about churchs differently. "When churches fall completely out of use, what shall we turn them into." Ive seen old Wawas being turned into dentist's offices and stuff like that, but what can you turn a church into after it is done being used? That question is unanswerable for me, but I think that a place so holy should be kept just the way it is. Also, I thought the last line of this poem was interesting as well. "Which, he once heard, was proper to grow wise in. If only that so many dead lie round. Thats kinda cool to think of it like that.. isn't it? I don't think this poem was meant to be funny, but I guess theres no harm in me finding it quite hysterical. :P
Just to appreciate churchs a little, I think this is the most beautiful one of all. The Basilica!
Just to appreciate churchs a little, I think this is the most beautiful one of all. The Basilica!
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I think that this poem is trying to figure out whether religion is important or not. The speaker kind of compares the church, and says that it is like a lot of other churches. Then the speaker starts to wonder whether or not churches are going to be relevant in the future. He says "what will we turn them into?" because I think he (she/it) is thinking that there is a possibility that religion will become unimportant. And then I believe the author starts to talk about what people who need to pray will do. Will they still turn to religion? Will they have some other form of prayer or luck? But I'm pretty sure by the end of the poem, even though the speaker himself feels kind of separated from religion, I think he feels that religion is necessary and that it has held together a lot of people in society. Which, while I'm not a religious person really, is kind of true. It's a support system if nothing else, something for people to believe in when everything else seems to have gone wrong. People get the power to work our their marriages because they took their vows in front of God and people pray when they can't do anything else, when someone is sick or dying or some other tragedy.
ReplyDeleteWow.. I read this from a completely different perspective. I thought it was quite sad actually. I feel like the speaker is elaborating on the idea that people are losing their faith and the sanctity of the church has been broken. Lines that point me to that conclusion are, " Yet stop I did: in fact I often do,/And always end much at a loss like this" He always stops to reaffirm his faith but it never happens. He does not find what he is looking for. Another line is "I sign the book, donate and Irish sixpence" Philip Larkin is an English man so presumably this is and English church and what good is a worthless donation? Humans have been building churches since the 1st century as places of worship and in this poem Larkin has them as places we only appreciate in birth, marriage, and death. They are undervalued and used only when we aim to please ourselves.. instead of using them to show gratitude to the deity.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with Ashlee on this one. I got a very empty feeling from reading this. I think there are many instances in which the speaker himself is admitting that he is losing touch with the church and faith. When he is observing the church roof, trying to decide if it had been restored or replaced, and how "someone would know: I dont." I know personally that no matter how many times we visit church in a year, we still have some idea as to what's going on there. The fact that the speaker doesn't know if any changes had taken place makes me think he's a little out of touch with the happenings of the church. Another line that struck me was line 20 when he says he always ends up at a loss when he visits the church...which is odd because isn't church supposed to make you feel renewed and leave you with anything but a loss? He's debating in the next few lines what they would do with the church if it falls out of use, almost talking about it as if it had lost its purpose already. He might be having a little anxiety about the future of faith when he asks what will remain after disbelief is gone, and referring to the church as a "shell" makes it seem like this hollow, useless nothing incapable of giving anyone spiritual substance whatsoever....which is a little depressing. Kaitlyn I think you pointed out some really great points! (it might just be my cynical mind at work here when I say this poem made me a little sad)
ReplyDeleteI actually liked this poem, especially compared to "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock;" at least this poem had a closure that made sense. We see in lines 58-63 (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 that so many dead lie round.) people will always be searching for a meaning in life, or a god to believe in, or even just something to confide in. So in the beginning, when he was trying to figure out why he kept visiting the church, he kind of answered his own initial question, which is more than we can say for Prufrock!
ReplyDeleteI also wanted to comment on the hilarity you found in this poem. I too thought that this poem was really relatable. I also used to go to church a lot, but only go occasionally now. When my family used to go to church, I always felt a little apprehensive and anxious going inside. My family is always early so most of the time we even beat the little old ladies there, meaning that it was pretty empty, sometimes dark, and kind of eerie. I did some of my best thinking in church, like how many people are buried in the cemetery outside, and what causes the smell that seemingly all churches contain. But nothing compares the the silence that you experience in an empty church, like the poem says, it is truly "unignorable." I used to attend an accompanying Catholic school that went with the church more or less, however, as most Catholic schools have done recently, it closed down. We all thought that since the school closed down, the church was soon to follow, however almost 10 years later, the church is still in use with approximately the same patronage. Like the poem suggests, even when it seems like there are no more believers left, there will always be people who feel a "hunger in himself to be more serious," meaning that there will always be someone who recognizes a serious and purposefulness to life, which religion can provide.
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ReplyDeleteI think it is interesting that everyone had different views on how they saw this poem, because I think that everyone could possibly have a different view or idea of the church in reality because of either being forced to go as a child, going once in a while, or not going at all. Personally, the church in my hometown is something special to me and is one of the last places I visited before I moved. Surprisingly, I was only in it for communion, confirmation, and MAYBE 3 masses. But I was a part of a youth group that put on a Passion Play there and also went there for some meetings. To me, the church is somewhat a "shell" full of memories with friends, so I took this line not as negatively as others, yet I saw that the writer may have written this as a negative. I saw the silence of the church as consoling as well, because before I moved I was very depressed and sitting in the silence of the church helped me think.
ReplyDeleteI found the poem somewhat depressing still (but not as bad as Still Falls The Rain) and found some of his questions about the future extremely contemplative and interesting. I loved stanza 3 because of this. He questions something that not many people think about. Someday, will people look at churches as antique places that no one goes to anymore? This could be seen as a negative outlook that people will lose faith, or in contrast another outlook that since the church is merely a "shell" people will meet anywhere to worship and practice their faith.
I agree that the speaker does seem a bit uncomfortable within the church, especially when he says "Someone would know: I don't," and "more loudly than I meant," as well as when he says it was "not worth stopping." He seems confused about where he fits, and his space within this system of the church.
Lastly, I think what he calls the church is interesting as well. During the last couple of stanzas he calls it "the special shell", a "frowsty barn", and a "serious house." Again he seems unaware of the true meanings behind the church and also feels intimidated and scared by it. I found the last two lines were important in showing that society sees the church as a "proper (place) to grow wise" yet is the best place to pray and worship where all the "dead lie round"?
Empty, that's a good word for what this poem made me feel. Empty. I said it was depressing, but it's worse than that. After the death of religion, of faith, and even of superstitions, what's left is...nothing. Emptiness. It's really sad how he goes into the church, speaks from the pulpit, touches the font, all while not feeling anything, but hoping to. The church has dead people in it, or around it, but it's like he feels the church is dead, too. People sometimes go to empty churches for comfort, to sit and pray, or just to bask in the solemn, sacred atmosphere, but he goes and feels nothing. I read another poem like this once, by Larkin, and that also had a feeling of emptiness. But this is worse.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting how the title of the poem had three different meanings, which were all elaborated on in the piece. The first is the simple idea of going to church as a ritual done by Christians, the second is that the church is physically going or fading away from people's lives, and the third is the church is still around because of some spiritual need. Larkin takes all three of these topics and intertwines them to present the curiosity of church and pinpoint the materialistic habbits of man and religion.
ReplyDeleteKaitlyn,
ReplyDeleteI really liked your reading of line "Another church: matting, seats, and stone." I feel like the line perfectly is able to encompass the message of the poem, because it is saying that every church is just a like. However the poem is saying that that religion is good so it is almost essential the every church be similar. I think Larkin wants us to think everyone wherever they are should have the ability to go to church so churches should not be vastly different because we should all be able to have same experience interacting with God. Personally I would agree with you because every church I have been into has been very similar and you are right they all do have a musty smell.
Daniel Pietaro