“Church Going” by Philip Larkin

Church Going, written in 1954, is a monologue in which the speaker discusses the futility and the utility
of going to a church. It clearly reveals the social context of the time when it was written. It was a time of
general decline in the attendance in churches which had begun to take place in 1945.

Philip Larkin, a contemporary poet, wrote ‘Church Going’ after World War II, when the shattering
influence of war was at its peak and there were constant social changes. Poet noticed the people’s
dependence on the church was fading, which leads us to the two possible meanings of the title ‘Church
Going’, the first being the weekly act of going to a church, or the fading away of the church. The poet
himself wasn’t a believer in the church, he was agnostic and indifferent, and the speaker in the poem
could be the poet himself or a persona adopted by him. The poem talks about the speaker’s thoughts as
he enters a vast, empty church and wonders what will happen when the churches fall into disuse. At a
deeper level the poem becomes an inquiry into the role of religion in our lives today.

In the poem, the speaker (who is undoubtedly Larkin himself) says that he goes into a church and sees
the matting on the floor, the seats, and a number of Bibles, flowers which had been placed inside on last
Sunday, a small organ etc. He mounts the lectern, and goes through a few verses in a Bible. Then he
goes back to the entrance, signs the book, drops an Irish sixpence into the charity-box, and comes out. It
seems to him that it was not worthwhile for him to come to the church. He thinks about the people who
come to the church for different purposes and goes on to conclude that the importance and use of
churches is going to decline. According to the speaker, a time is coming when people would stop going
to churches altogether, because they would have lost their faith in God and in divine worship. Then a
time is also coming when people’s disbelief in God and their superstitions would come to an end too.
Eventually, however, some people might still visit the decayed and disused church buildings on account
of some inner compulsion or to derive some wisdom from the sight of the many graves in the
churchyard. However, he is also of the view that though churches have a very little role to play in the
lives of people yet the spiritual significance of the churches will never die.

****Form and rhyme****

Despite the really conversational tone of the speaker, "Church Going" uses very a good deal of iambic
pentameter and a regular rhyme scheme.

The same could be said of the poem's rhyme scheme: ABABCADCD. In other words, in this poem of nine-
line stanzas, in each stanza the last word of lines 1, 3, and 6 rhyme (denoted by the A), the last word of
lines 2 and 4 rhyme (B), the last words of lines 5 and 8 rhyme (C), and the last words of lines 7 and 9
rhyme (D).

***Title***

"Church Going" seems like a very simple and straightforward title, just as the poem itself seems to be
simple and straightforward. On the most literal level, it refers to the way that regular "church goers"
attend mass every week. For the speaker of this poem, though, church going has a completely different
set of meanings, because he's not connected to the official teachings of Christianity. Church going for
him refers to the way that he continues to return to the church even though he can't find anything in it
that's believable. This double meaning of "church going" helps to highlight the tension this poem
explores between traditional religious meaning and the speaker's personal relationship to the church.

On another level, "Church Going" could refer to the fact that the speaker of this poem spends much of
his time wondering about what will happen to churches once people's belief in religion has vanished
from the Earth. In other words, the title also hints at the possibility that the church might "go" away
someday and never come back. That's exactly what a huge section of this poem is about.

*****CHURCH GOING (poem) [ Philip Larkin ]*****

“Church Going” is one of the best of Philip Larkin’s poems. The title itself is puzzling. It gives us two
different meanings. One meaning is that it is a regular visit to a church. The other shows the decline of
the institution because people lost faith in God and religion. His greatest virtues are clarity and close
observation of social life, perfect control over feeling and tone. The language is always simple and lucid
and the idiom has great variety. Through his poetry Larkin advises us not to be deceived by illusions or
ideals. He asks us to have a better awareness of man’s weaknesses. Larkin is called a sceptic poet. He
enters the church as a sceptic who does not have any faith in the church. But he slowly realizes the truth
that church fulfils a deeply felt human need and that it is “a serious house on a serious earth it is”.

Making sure that nothing is going on inside, the speaker of the poem enters the church and closes the
door behind him. He finds that it is just like any other church. He also notices the furniture, furnishings
such as the plate, the pyx, prayer books, the Bible, flowers cut for Sunday holy Mass, matting, seats, the
baptismal font and the organ. There are no worshippers in the church and the silence tensed him. He
looks around him with contempt and he feels a bad smell when he stands staring at the altar where the
church services are conducted. Having observed these details, the speaker takes off his cycle-clips in an
act of mock-reverence. He did not wear a hat.

The speaker then moves forward and touches the baptismal font with his hands. He notices that the
roof looks almost new but he does not know whether it has been cleaned or restored because he is not
a regular church-goer. Then he mounts the lectern and began to read out a few verses from the Bible.
After that he comes back to the door and signs the visitor’s book and donates an Irish six pence which
has no value in England. Thus all his activities and manners inside the church show that he is a sceptic
who has no faith in the church service. Finally he thinks that his time is wasted, because the place is not
worth visiting at all.

But the speaker could not avoid the church. Over and again he visited the church and each time his
skeptical attitude grew less and less. This time he stood inside the churching thinking about its future. As
science and technology began to develop, people lost faith in the institution of church. In future,
churches will become empty and completely out of use. A few cathedrals may be preserved as
museums for future generation because of its great art and architectural value. Their parchment, the
plate and the pyx may be kept in locked cases. But other church buildings will become sheltering centers
for sheep and other animals and poor people during rainy time. Sometime people may avoid such places
as unlucky because of its graveyard. The speaker of the poem thinks that perhaps the church will
become the centre of superstitions in the coming years. But if faith disappeared, naturally superstition
will also be disappeared because both are connected with each other. Finally the church buildings will
tumble down and only its concrete pillars would be standing as silent witness of the past glory of the
church. The church path will be over grown with grass, weeds and creepers. It will become a deserted
place. In course of time future generation will forget even the shape of the churches.

Now the speaker of the poem reflects who will be the last person to visit the church for its purpose. It
may be a lover of antiquity who is eager to see very old things or some Christmas-addict who visits
church only on important occasions such as the Easter or Christmas and he wants to enjoy the smell of
myrrh burnt, the flowers, the choir music, the dress worn by the choir and the priest and the music of
the organ.

Finally the speaker realizes that the church is a serious house on a serious earth. A church is a symbol of
man’s sincere search for the ultimate meaning of life. Science and technology cannot solve his spiritual
needs. That is why the speaker himself comes to the church again and again when he is tired of the
problems of life. A church is equipped with baptismal fond, flowers and the graveyard where “all human
glories are buried” with his bones. Thus the ceremonies of most important events in man’s life such as
birth, marriage and death are conducted in the church. In this sense we can say that this is a religious
poem. Thus the first meaning of the title “Church Going” is affirmed. The poem underlines the truth that
the power and the glory of God cannot be destroyed by the advancement of science and technology. On
the other hand the church will continue to be the centre focusing universal love and peace and giving
spiritual solace to man’s problems and sufferings in his life.