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Comment 32 of 32, added on May 24th, 2007 at 7:45 AM.
To anyone who's interested...
I have an interpretation as to what the "long slide" is all about. Larkin says that it is "everyone young going down the long slide" which means that the young are not prepared to take on adult responsbilities (i.e. sex)..they are simply too young and naive. The "long slide" is made for adults and it is therefore inapptopriate for what Larkin thinks are essentially just children, to be having sex before marriage...regardless of new contraceptives.
hmm from United Kingdom
Comment 31 of 32, added on January 3rd, 2007 at 7:34 PM.
I think most of the readers got it perfectly wrong, because the poem is neither about religion nor about losing one’s religion or such like. It’s a sad poem, as “everyone old” is meant to be Larkin himself (in 1974, when the book was published, he was 52), and he complains that, when he was young, having sex was thought to be sinful, there were “bonds and gestures” (line 5) to forbid sex before marriage, and masturbation was connected with fear of hell (“or sweating in the dark / About hell and that”, lines 12 – 13), and furthermore you had to be careful not to tell too much when confessing to a priest. So he looks at a couple of young ones and believes that they are able to go down a slide (comparable to a children’s slide on a playground) to joy or even eternal bliss or happiness (children do go down slides because doing so is pure fun or joy). Then he wonders whether some forty years ago, when he, Larkin, was young, some older person might have looked at him with similar thoughts of the young ones being able to lead happier lives than “everyone old”. At last there’s the image of the “high windows”: their glass catches the light and the warmth of the sun, which means happiness (as everybody feels happy in the sun), but from the outside you can’t see into this happiness, you just see a deep blue, which is not a real physical object (as happiness itself is no physical object), and as it is not physically real, it’s also limitless, but the important thing to Larkin is: he is kept outside, he is one of the “everyone old” who cannot participate in this happiness or joy. (There’s another poem in the same volume, called “Annus Mirabilis” (= year to admire, which is 1963, the year of the Beatles’ first LP), which tells a similar story.)
richard glabotki from Germany
Comment 30 of 32, added on June 13th, 2006 at 10:48 AM.
The final stanza makes me think of Wittgensteins maxim that 'What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.' Or possibly Simone Weil on the nature of spirituality: 'If an island completely cut off had never had any other than blind inhabitants, light would be for them what the supernatural is for us. One is tempted to think at first that for them it would be nothing, that by creating for their use a system of physics with all theory of light left out, one would be giving them a complete explanation of their world. For light offers no obstacle, exerts no pressure, is weightless, cannot be eaten. For them, it is absent. But it cannot be left out of account. By it alone the trees and plants reach towards the sky in spite of gravity. By it alone seeds, fruits, all things we eat, are ripened.'
Lee from United Kingdom
Comment 29 of 32, added on May 25th, 2006 at 1:11 PM.
i always thought of high church windows, as previously mentioned, and the symbolic nature of them allowing larkin to express a feeling of being trapped, almost trapped by belief just a thought though.
jenny
Comment 28 of 32, added on May 23rd, 2006 at 12:53 PM.
I suddenly thought of High Windows today. I haven't read it for at least 30 years, but it sometimes comes back to me if I feel 'cut off' from vitality for some reason. High windows are found in institutions, including educational ones, which should be about freeing the spirit, nourishing the imaginatioItn and individual creativity. They rarely are. It's a disturbing and unsettling poem which haunts for years.
Kate from United Kingdom
Comment 27 of 32, added on May 17th, 2006 at 2:16 AM.
I'm sorry, but... Is it weird that the first thing I thought of when I read High Windows was windows high up in a building that are good for jumping out of?
Phas from Australia
Comment 26 of 32, added on May 16th, 2006 at 10:23 AM.
I love playing cricket for ON's and I love looking at other people's winky's in the changing rooms, especially Dave Willey's Willy.xxx
Charlie swallows from United Kingdom
Comment 25 of 32, added on May 10th, 2006 at 5:50 PM.
I think high windows can also be a symbol of church because churches are known for their tall windows. Stained glass or not, as soon as I read "High Windows" I thought of a church. So what mary said about religion might in fact be exacty what the poem is getting at although in church (temple, mosque), you don't look into the outside world through the windows, you look into the world of god. Just a thought.
shalom
anna
anna from New Zealand
Comment 24 of 32, added on April 30th, 2006 at 9:24 AM.
Hi!
Just found this site and thought you might be able to help me?
In Philip Larkin's High Windows Anthology what significance do 'windows' have to the rest of the Anthology? I feel that the windows show us life in all forms; and if we are only observing then we become seperate from life and the world. So, in a way the windows become barriers. Am I on the right track or have i totally got the wrong end of the stick? help!
Star from United Kingdom
Comment 23 of 32, added on April 26th, 2006 at 8:26 AM.
likin the larkin machine! what a beast!! his poetry got us so ecstatically enthusiasticaly ginger (thanx bex) the first stanza presents an atmosphere of detatchment. that is all. Goodbye. yep bye then.
lucy becky ellie laura helen mrs thorpe from United Kingdom
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To anyone who's interested...
I have an interpretation as to what the "long slide" is all about. Larkin says that it is "everyone young going down the long slide" which means that the young are not prepared to take on adult responsbilities (i.e. sex)..they are simply too young and naive. The "long slide" is made for adults and it is therefore inapptopriate for what Larkin thinks are essentially just children, to be having sex before marriage...regardless of new contraceptives.
hmm from United Kingdom