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Analysis and comments on High Windows by Philip Larkin

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Comment 28 of 38, 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 38, 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 38, 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 38, 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 38, 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 38, 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
Comment 22 of 38, added on April 5th, 2006 at 7:59 PM.

i think that Larkin is commenting on the loss of religion in today's society. by equating paradise (eden) with fu*king with a diaphragm, he is making a parody of paradise. he is telling us that God is the higher meaning to human existence, and with a loss of belief in him, we become mere physical objects. Lovemaking becomes purely physical, and if you look to the last stanza, the heavens too becomes "nothing" but blue air. The high windows represent heaven/religion/god/true paradise that we, without faith, cannot reach.

mary from Canada
Comment 21 of 38, added on March 18th, 2006 at 5:42 AM.

hello,i dont have many friends,due to the disgusting smell which rises from my face,i love philip larkin,his skin is moist and i love to lick it with my left toe.I look like a cow and it is rather weird,but i think nothing of it.Please leave a comment back if your'e name is susan.Thank you.I love bumfun.Amen

ben clarkson
Comment 20 of 38, added on March 26th, 2006 at 8:04 PM.

i wrote more than that... it got deleted somehow... oh well. thanks

christianna from United States
Comment 19 of 38, added on March 26th, 2006 at 7:51 PM.

I had to write a minimum of 5 pages on a poem for AP english 12. i chose this one. i quoted some of you in the paper, i hope you don't mind. i didn't use your names, i just said you had commented on here.
your views mixed and differed with mine in areas, so it was a great help for the paper!
. “Shouldn’t paradise be a perfect place as what most people believed? A coarse word is used here as well, perhaps mocking at the common perception of paradise that it is something so ‘holy’, ‘saintly’ and perfect. Pills and birth control methods, all these are supposedly contrary to the catholic beliefs. Yet, he views this as paradise."2

christianna from United States

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Information about High Windows

Poet: Philip Larkin
Poem: High Windows
Added: Feb 20 2003
Viewed: 34417 times
Poem of the Day: Nov 1 2003


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