The Raven
by Edgar Allan Poe


 Church Going
by Philip Larkin


 Frost at Midnight
by Samuel Coleridge


 I sit & look out
by Walt Whitman


 The Lady of Shallot
by Alfred Lord Tennyson


 Telephone Conversation
by Wole Soyinka


 Going Places
by A.R. Barton


 Village Cricket Match
by A. G. Macdonell


 The Night Train at Deoli
by Ruskin Bond


 Growing Up
by Joyce Cary


 The Castaway
by Rabindranath Tagore


Church Going
-by Philip Larkin

The poem 'Church Going' represents the thoughts of the poet as he enters a church. He is an agnostic but accepts the importance of religion in human culture. In the poem, the speaker questions the utility of churches and hence religion in our life & also seems to make an attempt to understand their attraction. Failing to realize their allure, he wonders to himself that what will happen to the churches, once they go out of fashion and fall to disuse. The poem that seems to be an inquiry into the role of religion in our lives today, describes the curiosity of the speaker on the same subject. However, in the end the narrator comes to the conclusion that churches will never go out of style, not only because of the integral role of religion in our society, but also because mankind has an innate need to believe in something greater then themselves.

Once I am sure there's nothing going on I step inside, letting the door thud shut.

The poet enters the huge, empty and still expanse of a church, after making sure that no one is there inside as his purpose of visiting was to just understand what attracts the people to this place.

Another church: matting, seats, and stone, And little books;

The word 'Another' signifies that the poet had visited a number of churches and had a habit of doing so, with the same matting, seats and Bibles, in his search for some difference of one of them from others. Being a weekday, the flowers of the Sunday church had not been removed and hence they were withered and had turned brown. An organ or a smaller piano was kept near the holy altar. He added that the church had an atmosphere of absolute stillness and which could not be ignored.
Taking off his cycle clips in a clumsy show of respect, he moved towards the Font, the place where the holy water is kept for baptism. Instead of looking at statue of Jesus, he first looked at the roof which seemed clean or renovated-stating that the church had a caretaker. He then stood on the lectern, from where the priest gives his speech, and quickly tried reading some verses imitating the priest's voice, mocking in contempt.

Back at the door I sign the book, donate an Irish sixpence, Reflect the place was not worth stopping for.

In his next stanza, the poet admits that although it is worthless to visit a church, he still does it often. He wonders, what will happen of the church when people completely stop visiting them.

A few cathedrals chronically on show, Their parchment, plate, and pyx in locked cases, And let the rest rent-free to rain and sheep.
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