Religion /// Emily Thullesen

 For this week’s post, I specifically wanted to emphasize the meaning behind Larkin’s poem “Church Goers.” The poem itself has a pretty straightforward tone and influences a melancholy mood for the readers. Larkin describes the church building in a way that heavily emphasizes the place’s flaws and wear downs, creating the idea of abandonment tying back to the concept of religion itself. 

Larkin creates this sense of absence within the church which led me to consider the way many “church goers” actually are. Most religious people come to church merely out of routine, bringing their families and sitting through the services without much thought whatsoever. In this way, Larkin’s description of the church symbolizes the inward attitudes of many religious people. They are spiritually dead. The withering away of the church in the poem represents the way people fall away from spirituality throughout the cycles of life. 

I was not aware of Larkin’s religion when reading this, and I wondered if he was a non-believer or strong believer in God based on the way it is written. A non-believer could easily agree with the church being “dead” and eventually fading away, because that person will see no significance behind it. However, if he was a believer as myself, then the deeper meaning would have been much more intended. 

I commented on Emily Otts and Lily Caswell’s posts. 

Comments

  1. Haylee LyndJanuary 31, 2022 at 10:06 PM

    I did not get this straight from reading the poem, but after rereading it after reading your blog post, I see this is quite clear(I am just bad with poetry lol). I can see easily how his writing conveys that religious people are spiritually dead, and because they are attending simply out of routine, eventually they will fall out of that routine because they have no true desire to be in the house of the Lord, and thus, the church becomes an empty although "special shell."

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  2. Bug OlsenJanuary 31, 2022 at 10:53 PM

    I love how you mentioned the outward reflection of the church to the inward death of Christians. The later lines in his poem also reflect his thoughts that religion will eventually die completely, since to Larkin God was not real and there was no need for religion. The theme of death is highly prominent throughout his poems, and while he mainly focused on human death, the death of concepts such as religion is extremely prominent as well, and this poem was a clear reflection of his thoughts on the matter.

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  3. IsabelleFebruary 1, 2022 at 9:28 AM

    Hi Emily! I completely agree with your post. However, I believe the tone of Larkin's poetry is largely due to the time period. I believe everyone at this time was going through an emotional "rut" due to surviving two World Wars. You make a great point about church goers though. Great post!

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