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Powered by LitCharts content and AI. First published in The Less Deceived in 1955, "Church Going" remains one of Philip Larkin's best-known poems. Its speaker casually visits an empty church, a place he views with skeptical irreverence. Nevertheless, the speaker admits that he's drawn to churches and speculates about what will become of them ...
Another church: matting, seats, and stone, And little books; sprawlings of flowers, cut For Sunday, brownish now; some brass and stuff Up at the holy end; the small neat organ; And a tense, musty, unignorable silence, Brewed God knows how long. Hatless, I take off My cycle-clips in awkward reverence, Move forward, run my hand around the font.
- Philip Larkin
- Philip Larkin and A Summary of 'Church Going'
- The Speaker in 'Church Going'
- Analysis of 'Church Going': Metre, Rhyme and Tone
- Diction and Language
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'Church Going' is a medium-length lyrical poem that explores the issue of the church as a spiritual base. It begins ordinarily enough, as do many of Larkin's poems, then progresses deeper into the subject matter as the narrator questions why people still need to go to church. 1. Although set in England at a time when traditional religion was beginn...
Although it starts out ordinarily enough, this is a poem of unusual reflection. The speaker appears to be a person who frequents churches with the attitude of a museum-goer—he's only there for the history and the architecture and to have a laugh with a biblical text—yet he is humble in one respect: he rides a bicycle and wears old-fashioned clips t...
'Church Going' has seven stanzas, each with a mix of slant and full end-rhymes and often made up of nine iambic pentameter lines. This reflects tradition, the common metre (meter in American English) of the land, setting a steady five beats per line on average: And note the astute use of enjambment—when one line flows into another, without punctuat...
This poem is packed with a rich mixture of common and rare vocabulary. It can be read out loud, whispered quietly, or even read in silence; it seems to satisfy all criteria for poetry performance. Stanza by stanza, there are notable combinations: 1. door thud shut/some brass and stuff ... assonanceand vowel variety. 2. Hectoring/Here endeth ... hec...
The Poetry Handbook,John Lennard, OUP,2005YouTubeThis is a seven- stanza poem that is made up of sets of nine lines. Each of these strophes is constructed with a specific, but somewhat halting rhyme scheme in mind. Philip Larkin has chosen to make use of both full and half- end rhymes. These varying endings give the poem a feeling of unpredictability. One is never quite sure when the words ...
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- October 9, 1995
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Once I am sure there's nothing going on. I step inside, letting the door thud shut. Another church: matting, seats, and stone, And little books; sprawlings of flowers, cut. For Sunday, brownish now; some brass and stuff. Up at the holy end; the small neat organ; And a tense, musty, unignorable silence,
Mar 15, 2024 · March 15, 2024. By. Bob Smietana. (RNS) — If experts were predicting that 100,000 libraries across the United States were likely to close in the next few decades, people would probably sit up ...
This is the great work of the Church. The Church is a place to belong as it becomes a haven of hospitality. It is a haven because, like Paul and Luke, the journey can get rough. The journey may include time spent with hard, salty old pagans. Some of you work with people like the idolaters that Paul and Luke sailed with.
