Please can you give an analysis of "Church Going" by Philip Larkin.

This is an incredibly important poem from the works of
Philip Larkin, the famous English poet. One of his hobbies was visiting old churches in
the countryside of Britain of which there are many, but interestingly he was a devout
atheist. In this poem he talks about the possible future of churches and also comments
on the kind of need that they fulfil even for the cynics like
himself.

The poem starts with the speaker entering the
church he is visiting once he is sure "there is nothing going on." He finds the
"unignorable silence" of the church to impact him, and he takes of his bicycle-clips as
a sign of "awkward reverence." As he looks around the church and then leaves, he
reflects that the place "was not worth stopping for." However, in the third stanza, he
addresses this dilemma talking about why he did stop:

readability="15">

Yet stop I did: in fact I often
do,

And always end much at a loss like
this,

Wondering what to look for; wondering,
too,

When churches will fall completely out of
use...

Larkin thus addresses
the paradox that causes him to keep stopping and visiting churches, and then begins to
consider the future of religion and churches in England, which he saw as being phased
out by changes in culture. To his mind, church was becoming "A shape less recognisable
each week/A purpose more obscure." However, in spite of these musings about the
extinction of churches and the fact that Larkin views this church as an "accoutred
frowsty barn," it nevertheless pleases him to "stand in silence here." This leads us to
the final stanza, where he talks about the way that religion and churches will always
have a role in the future:

readability="30">

A serious house on serious earth it
is,

In whose blent air all our compulsions
meet,

Are recognised, and robed as
destinies.

And that much never can be
obsolete,

Since someone will forever be
surprising

A hunger in himself to be more
serious,

And gravitating with it to this
ground,

Which, he once heard, was proper to grow wise
in,

If only that so many dead lie
round.

Thus, according to
Larkin, churches will always have some kind of role, because all of our "compulsions"
meet together in this "serious house on a serious earth." Churches satisfy the
unexplainable "hunger in ourselves to be more serious," that comes to all of us, even
the most hardened atheist such as Larkin. This "hunger" leads us to places like
churches, which were "proper to grow wise in." It is typical of Larkin that he ends the
poem with an ironically humorous note, suggesting that churches are only good to "grow
wise in" because of the dead that there are there.

Finally
it is important to note the multi-layered meaning of the title. "Church going" is about
going to churches and visiting them at one level, but also it is talking about the
passing of churches from culture and this present time, considering their extinction and
what possible uses they will be put to in the future. This is a great poem so I hope you
enjoy it!