Talking in Bed

“An Arundel Tomb“ by Philip Larkin (1964)

When Larkin visited Chichester Cathedral in 1956, he noticed a monument to the fourteenth-century Earl of Arundel and his wife that showed them lying together, hand in hand. The poem he wrote after this visit is a meditation on death, time, and love. The final line, “What will survive of us is love,” is one of Larkin’s most famous. However, the line must be read in context; the speaker of Larkin’s poem qualifies this statement in the penultimate line of the poem, pointing out that the earl and his wife prove “Our almost-instinct almost true.” The qualifier “almost” appears twice in the poem, making the tidy and optimistic-seeming conclusion problematic. The word “almost” suggests a cautious, guarded attitude, typical of Larkin who is famous for his skepticism of love.

“The Whitsun Weddings“ by Philip Larkin (1964)

One Saturday afternoon in May or June, the speaker of the poem takes a train to London. Each time the train stops at a station, a newlywed couple steps on as the wedding party stands on the platform and waves them goodbye. It appears that it is the season for marriage. The speaker describes the joyful wedding parties, and he is aware of their new happiness, but in the last four lines, the brakes that are applied to the train and the cryptic image of falling rain suggest that happiness may not last long.