Comment 4 of 25, added on March 28th, 2005 at 10:30 AM.

This poem is the last in his collection and it is deliberately chosen to add a more gloomy feel to his entire collection. The title suggests that it marks the end of it all, and a 'tomb' is not exactly a very comforting object. It sort of hints that a definite resolution cannot be found for all his questions in his themes, and all leads to death eventually. It is sad that even at the very end, we cannot even be truly enlightened in our quests for answers.

The poem talks about 2 statues, having gone through time and weathering, seemed to have lost its original feel that was intended as could be seen from here: 'Such faithfulness in effigy
Was just a detail friends would see:'. Only those who looked beyond the surface would have an idea of what it was meant to be.

Most would choose 'To look, not read', and end up 'washing' away and eroding the identity of the statues. 'Time has transfigures them into
Untruth.'

What would survive is perhaps an 'attitude', an attitude of love. Even in that, the narrator seems to be unsure if what remains of the attitude is totally pure and uncorrupted.

More than just relating to the issue of love being the only entity that perhaps can withstand the test of time, the poet might also be hinting to us his own feelings about faith. Most people who look at the surface and not look deeper would never really see the light. They only saw what they wanted to see. In this instance, the poet perhaps felt that if they had looked deeper, they will realise that the reality is not all so rosy as their faith promised. The reality that those people saw is the 'untruth' that had 'transfigured by time'. So what is the reality really?

At the end, the poet offers a resolution for himself, perhaps as a consolation or even a mild level of self-deception. He proclaims that love is the only element that can survive all. He did not mention anything about God or faith, perhaps that is the distinction that he had made between love and faith. Faith perhaps may not be all about love at all. Till the very end, the poet is never truly convinced with whatever answers he offered for himself.


cata from Singapore

Comment 2 of 25, added on March 18th, 2005 at 3:42 AM.

This poem, for me, is one of Larkin's best. The poem is significant in that it almost seems to show a glimmer of hope in it's conclusion; 'What will survive of us is love'. This, however, is counteracted by the fact that this is 'almost-instinct almost true'. It seems that Larkin is not entirely convinced that love will survive of us. (Could this be another of Larkin's rejection to ideas - See 'Love Songs in Age' for an example) However, I think that the fact that this slighty more optimistic poem is the final poem in the collection is siginificant; Larkin, instead of leaving his reader with less-hopeful poem such as Mr Bleaney, has left his reader with the final line 'What will survive of us is love'. Surely this can be thought of as a moment of optimism from Larkin, although even this seems to be loaded with doubt.

Jenny C from United Kingdom