Lines And Church Going

Question 1

At last you __________ up the album’ (Lines)

Answer 1

yielded

Question 2

Too much ____________, too rich’ (Lines)

Answer 2

confectionary

Question 3

What kind of semantic field is used in the opening stanza of Lines on a Young Lady’s Photograph Album?

Answer 3

semantic field of food (the woman is presented as a commodity to be consumed)

Question 4

What are some of the quotations that link to the semantic field of food in Lines on a Young Lady’s Photograph Album?

Answer 4

too much confectionary’ ‘I choke on such nutritious images’ ‘My swivel eye hungers’

Question 5

I ___________ on such nutritious images’ (Lines)

Answer 5

Choke

Question 6

How is ‘art’ described in Lines on a Young Lady’s Photograph Album?

Answer 6

faithful and disappointing

Question 7

In Lines on a Young Lady’s Photograph Album, why does the speaker see photography as ‘disappointing’? ‘ ___________ and ______________’

Answer 7

It is too ‘faithful’ - it does not leave room for imagination

Question 8

So I am left to _________’ (Lines)

Answer 8

mourn

Question 9

Why does Larkin feel saddened when he considers the girl’s past in Lines on a Young Lady’s Photograph Album?

Answer 9

It is something that he is excluded from - it is ‘a past that no one can now share’.

Question 10

It holds you like a __________’ (Lines)

Answer 10

Heaven

Question 11

What technique is used in the following: ‘‘it holds you like a heaven’’ (Lines)

Answer 11

Simile

Question 12

In Lines on a Young Lady’s Photograph Album, what it is that the speaker says ‘holds you [the girl] like a heaven’?

Answer 12

the past

Question 13

Which quotation in Lines on a Young Lady’s Photograph Album suggests that the past preserves the woman in an eternal state of wonder and purity.

Answer 13

‘it holds you like a heaven’

Question 14

‘Once I am sure there’s nothing _________ / __________’ (Church Going)

Answer 14

going on

Question 15

What is the significance of the opening line from Church Going? ‘Once I am sure there’s nothing going on’

Answer 15

The phrase ‘nothing going on’ perhaps suggests the speaker views the church with suspicion - almost as a place of strange, cultish practices.

Question 16

sprawlings of flowers, cut // For Sunday, ___________ now; (Church Going)

Answer 16

brownish

Question 17

In Church Going, what is the significance of the ‘brownish’ flowers and the ‘musty’ silence?

Answer 17

Both ideas have connotations of something stale and past its best. This is perhaps what Larkin is suggesting about the church and the role of religion.

Question 18

‘some brass and _________’ (Church Going)

Answer 18

stuff

Question 19

What is the significance of Larkin referring to the sacred items in the church as ‘some brass and stuff’?

Answer 19

It suggests that the speaker sees the church, and the objects in it, as insignificant and dull.

Question 20

What technique is used in the title of Church

Answer 20

A pun

Question 21

How does Larkin employ a pun in the title of Church Going?

Answer 21

‘Church Going’ could literally refer to the practice of ‘going’ to (attending) church. However, it could also be describing how the relevance of the church is ‘going’ from society.

Question 22

In Church Going, what worthless currency does the speaker donate to the church?

Answer 22

‘An Irish sixpence’

Question 23

In Church Going, why does the speaker donate ‘an Irish sixpence’?

Answer 23

This currency is worthless, so this gesture is used by Larkin to convey how, initially at least, the protagonist sees the church as having no value.

Question 24

Where does Larkin employ a volta in Church Going?

Answer 24

At the beginning of the third stanza. After previously commenting that the church was ‘not worth stopping for’, the speaker then admits ‘Yet stop I did: in fact I often do’

Question 25

What is a volta?

Answer 25

The turning point in a poem

Question 26

‘__________ what to look for; _______________, too…’ (Church Going)

Answer 26

wondering

Question 27

Why is repetition used in Church Going as the speaker describes: ‘Wondering what to look for; wondering, too,// When churches fall completely out of use// What we shall turn them into?’

Answer 27

To show a more reflective and less dismissive tone. The speaker contemplates the future of the church.

Question 28

In the penultimate stanza of Church Going, the narrator describes the church as a ‘special ____________’

Answer 28

shell

Question 29

What adjective is repeated in the final stanza of Church Going to describe the church and its role in society?

Answer 29

serious.

Question 30

Which word is used in the final stanza of Church Going to convey how the church will always have an unexplainable power to attract people?

Answer 30

‘gravitating’

Question 31

What did Larkin’s father tell him about religion?

Answer 31

‘Never believe in God!’

Question 32

How did Larkin refer to religion?

Answer 32

‘absolute balls’