Church Going Flashcards
how does Larkin use structure in Church Going to illustrate his messages?
- Larkin uses complex versification which contains sentences of ordinary/colloquial syntax
- conveys a double voice: voice of the ordinary man through the sentence structure, alongside the voice of the poet in verse and rhythm
analyse the title of Church Going
- physical meaning: traditional routine of going to church
- figurative meaning: church is reducing in influence and fading in relevance’
analyse the quote ‘another church’ from Church Going
- mocking undertone
- lack of identity and individualising features; suggests religion and the church is repetitive and dull
analyse the quote ‘brownish now’ from Church Going
- suggests neglect; stale and past its best
- symbolic of the church and religion; it is outdated - suggests religion doesn’t have that much value
analyse the quote ‘some brass and stuff / up at the holy end’ from Church Going
- dismissive
- trivial description is emphatic of the physical realities without any spiritual connection
analyse the quote ‘tense, musty, unignorable silence’ from Church Going
asyndetic triplet suggests the church is old and boring
analyse the quote ‘God knows how long’ from Church Going
- colloquial idiom suggests speaker doesn’t know much about the church but equally doesn’t care to learn; exaggerates speaker’s dismissive perception
- pun on ‘god’; speaker still uses religious language suggesting religion still has an innate impact on society, regardless of lack of understanding
analyse the quote ‘awkward reverence’ from Church Going
speaker pretends an indifference he does not feel, shown by his conventional reverence and embarassment
analyse the quote ‘the roof looks almost new’ from Church Going
- prioritises the physical building, further removing any sentimentality or value from religion
- speaker finds worth in the physical church building, rather than the concept of religion
- church has ‘almost’ been replaced
analyse the quote ‘hectoring large-scale verses’ from Church Going
- contrasts the preceding everyday diction, mimicking the rhetorical grandeur of the verses
- intimidating and tedious; speaker mocks the length of sermons and perceives religion as dull, but equally has a recognition of the long-standing weight of the church
analyse the quote ‘irish sixpence’ from Church Going
- worthless donation underscores mocking tone, suggesting speaker is unbothered by religion
- contrasts Larkin’s traditionally conservative views
analyse the quote ‘Yet stop I did: in fact I often do’ from Church Going
- ‘yet’ signals a turning point in mindset of speaker
- caesura is a physical pause for the reader to contemplate
- reflective of speaker’s inherent curiosity, especially towards societal upkeep of religion
analyse the quote ‘wondering […] wondering’ from Church Going
- shift from mockery to reflection/contemplation
- anaphoric repetition is emphatic of speaker’s curiosity about the church
analyse the quote ‘chronically on show’ from Church Going
- ‘on show’ suggests speaker sees religion as solely performative
- adverb connotes illness/disease, especiialy tiring or incurable ones; suggests religion should be accepted asnd we have to learn to live with it, despite it being habitually problematic
analyse the quote ‘parchment, plate and pyx in locked cases’ from Church Going
- revered but no longer accessible and in use suggests lost sentimentalty and purpose
- speaker contemplates historical value of the church; Larkin’s conservative views prize historical value
analyse the quote ‘power of some sort or another will go on’ from Church Going
- it is impossible to completely eradicate beliege
- without religion, society will cling to other kinds of belief; therefore, belief as a concept must have some kind of inherent value
- indicative of both the necessity of some kind of belief but also the lack of value of those beliefs, as they can be so easily changed/replaced
- faith offers comfort/purpose/answers to the unexplainable
analyse the quote ‘seemingly at random’ from Church Going
superstitions which may succeed the church express a yearning in man for the transcendant and mystical which the poet insists are illusory
analyse the quote ‘grass, weedy pavement, brambles, buttress, sky’ from Church Going
- asyndetic list of physical objects contrast abstract concepts
- nature outlives belief and religion; in the absencew of belief, we only have the physical world
analyse the quote ‘a shape less recognisable each week; a purpose more obscure’ from Church Going
- parallel phrasing; connection of physical ruin to fading purpose; value of religion is tied to the physical world as it had lost any sentiment
- without the recognisable shape of the church, the purpose of religion becomes blurred
- religion is fragile and baseless, and lacks strength and power
analyse the quote ‘some ruin-bibber, randy for antique’ from Church Going
- ‘some’ is unspecific, creating a generalised separation
- sexual connotation of ‘randy’ sues taboo language; Larkin mocks those who he belives will cling on to religion as the church fades
analyse the quote ‘bored, uninformed, knowing the ghostly silt /dispersed, yet tending to this cross of ground / through suburb scrub because it held unspilt’ from Church Going
- ‘ghostly silt’ suggests church no longer contains residue of the divine
- almost innate actions/natural response
- upholding value of the church despite speaker lacking knowledge and feeling unexcited by the church
- ‘unspilt’ suggests religion has longevity; speaker eecognsises the historical value of religion
analyse the quote ‘marriage, and birth, and death’ from Church Going
speaker values the church’s ability to contain such significant, existential concepts as these
analyse the quote ‘special shell’ from Church Going
- physical building protects the value of religion OR the shell is hollow so the true value of religion has fade completely
- it is important but not in itself; it is a symbol for/ hold important things/ideas
analyse the quote ‘a serious house on serious earth’ from Church Going
repetition of serious suggests speaker understands the worthy role religion plays in society, even though he is detached from this; the future of religion is secure
