Philip Larkin

It is difficult to choose a style of Larkin's that I like more, for I appreciate both. If "like" meant, which poem would I pick to save, apart from the rest; "Church Going" would be the one. It seems to be a perfect combination of both Larkin's cynicism as well as a deeper religious understanding of the world and people's search for transcendence. Probably the biggest draw for me in Larkin’s religious side is the fact that it does at times sound like he is yearning for an understanding in something greater. In the melodramatic and dark witted poems there doesn’t seem a way out of his negativity. He seems set and determined that marriage is a trap in “Talking in Bed” and it doesn’t sound like he could really be persuaded otherwise.
His yearning and nearly religious side of certain works I believe can also be applied to more than the ones that are labeled as such. It seems as though there is an internal struggle in “Church Going”, and this view can give a different reading to a work that can be seen as dark and negative, like “Talking in Bed”. If he figured out what there was behind church and why people were going he might find a way out of the feeling of loneliness that he seems to think coincides with the institution of marriage. His struggle with an understanding of a greater power I think is an underlying thread in his work. There are two sides to him, one that flatly negates that there is anything to yearn towards, and one that questions and possibly desires more. A lot of his work comes from the firmer more resolute Larkin. But then there are the poems like “Church Going” and “Here” where he seems to let the questions surface.