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Comment 38 of 38, added on June 1st, 2009 at 7:10 AM.
When I read the poem I was a bit upset!
well, I personally think that when Larkin talks about the couple of kids making sex, is refering to the changes in the society, after the Second World War: religious changes, social changes and above all, cultural ones.
In the 2 stanza, he refers to the old generations that cannot appreciate the feedom of the youth, of the new generation anymore because they had a lot of bonds and thresholds!
Are also important the last 2 stanzas when he talks about God who doesn't exist anymore, the priest who lost his importance and he cannot be a guide for human being!Both are like free bloody birds!
The HIGH WINDOWS in the last part of the poem, can be the a kind of telescope through that we can see and undestand a lot of things, and behind these windows, there is the deep blue air, the knowledge!
That's my personal opinion!
LAURA from Italy
Comment 37 of 38, added on May 7th, 2009 at 8:55 PM.
I think in the poam "Toads" by Philip Larkin is his way of complaining about his life. The "Toads" in his life I beleive are work, lack of money, and something "inside himself" is either his lack of charm or his unfortuanate appearance (look up the picture). Basically this is a poem about his resentment of his life. I don't know I think it's a stupid poem and isn't worth reading, but unfortuantly my English teacher diagrees.
'
Courtney from United States
Comment 36 of 38, added on May 7th, 2009 at 10:05 AM.
No, NO, NO!!! You guys are getting it all wrong!!!
High Windows is partly a reflection of Larkin's views of society and how it values religious teachings. Larkin is commenting on how times have changed and sex is common and free.
When Larkin speaks of the young going down the slide, he is saying that because they are doing what the traditional religious society would refer to as "sinning", they will eventually goo down the slide of death- leading to Hell.
The high windows stand in between earth and the beyond and what Larkin is basically saying is that beyond earth, beyond the high windows- there is nothing...
Rushka from South Africa
Comment 35 of 38, added on March 29th, 2009 at 6:46 PM.
This poem is about change in the society there's a gab between old and young and he can't reach it there are high windows
Mike from Netherlands
Comment 34 of 38, added on March 25th, 2009 at 11:24 AM.
R Glabotki from Germany got it right, most readers that commented on High Windows got it wrong, including Richard. The oddest thing he said indicates he thinks Larkins reference to "...sweating in the dark," refers to masturbation. The reference is to the "long slide" of moral change seperating one generation from another.
Paul Stebbing from United States
Comment 33 of 38, added on February 14th, 2009 at 5:36 PM.
For me this is a shout of hope for the future but with a sensation of vertigo from the perspective of someone who feels he is being left behind by it.
This is paradise, the freedom the previous generation has worked for but has not been able to take part in themselves because of the rules which governed their relationships. The people who would have been the priests in the world to come will be taken up in the shout of joy instead. And together everyone will fall into the deep blue sky of the future which the poet is denied.
adam
Comment 32 of 38, 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 38, 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 38, 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 38, 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
This poem has been commented on more than 10 times. Click below to see the other comments.
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When I read the poem I was a bit upset!
well, I personally think that when Larkin talks about the couple of kids making sex, is refering to the changes in the society, after the Second World War: religious changes, social changes and above all, cultural ones.
In the 2 stanza, he refers to the old generations that cannot appreciate the feedom of the youth, of the new generation anymore because they had a lot of bonds and thresholds!
Are also important the last 2 stanzas when he talks about God who doesn't exist anymore, the priest who lost his importance and he cannot be a guide for human being!Both are like free bloody birds!
The HIGH WINDOWS in the last part of the poem, can be the a kind of telescope through that we can see and undestand a lot of things, and behind these windows, there is the deep blue air, the knowledge!
That's my personal opinion!
LAURA from Italy