"An Arundel Tomb" by Philip Larkin (poetry reading)

Philip Larkin was inspired by the tomb of the Arundel family in Chichester Cathedral, which is about 12 miles away from Arundel. He was one of many visitors over the centuries. He remarks on what was a mere whim of the sculptor, the clasped hands, has come to signify so much to so many people and their surviving emblem.

The details are in this article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Arundel_Tomb

I am often reminded of Larkin when putting the children to bed, especially of his immortal line "They tuck you up, your Mum and Dad..."


Side by side, their faces blurred
The earl and countess lie in stone,
Their proper habits vaguely shown
As jointed armour, stiffened pleat,
And that faint hint of the absurd -
The little dogs under their feet.

Such plainness of the pre-baroque
Hardly involves the eye, until
It meets his left-hand gauntlet, still
Clasped empty in the other; and
One sees, with a sharp tender shock,
His hand withdrawn, holding her hand.

They would not think to lie so long.
Such faithfulness in effigy
Was just a detail friends would see:
A sculptor's sweet commissioned grace
Thrown off in helping to prolong
The Latin names around the base.

They would not guess how early in
Their supine stationary voyage
The air would change to soundless damage,
Turn the old tenantry away ;
How soon succeeding eyes begin
To look, not read. Rigidly they

Persisted, linked, through lengths and breadths
Of time. Snow fell, undated. Light
Each summer thronged the glass. A bright
Litter of birdcalls strewed the same
Bone-riddled ground. And up the paths
The endless altered people came,

Washing at their identity.
Now, helpless in the hollow of
An unarmorial age, a trough
Of smoke in slow suspended skeins
Above their scrap of history,
Only an attitude remains:

Time has transfigured them into
Untruth. The stone fidelity
They hardly meant has come to be
Their final blazon, and to prove
Our almost-instinct almost true:
What will survive of us is love

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Arundel
• Tomb
• Chichester
• Philip
• Larkin

[moirasmith]

'They tuck you up, your mum and dad'???? Do leave off ... 'An Arundel Tomb' is very beautiful and pure .. the other poem referred to (with correct spelling) shows the other, irreverent, side of Larkin. Which endeared him just as much to his readers. I understand that PL was asked to be Poet Laureate, but refused: Ted Hughes (just as deserving) accepted.

To me they are both among the major 20thC poets (there are others, quite a few, what an era). But Larkin is certainly very special.

[SpokenVerse]

@moirasmith They tuck you up, your mum and dad, They read you Peter Rabbit, too. They give you all the treats they had And add some extra just for you. They were tucked up when they were small, (Pink perfume, blue tobacco-smoke), By those whose kiss healed any fall, Whose laughter doubted any joke. Man hands on happiness to man, It deepens like a coastal shelf. So love your parents all you can And have some cheerful kids yourself. Unusual to meet somebody so authoritarian about poetry. 

[moirasmith]

@SpokenVerse

You wrote "Unusual to meet somebody so authoritarian about poetry. " I just happen to like and admire Philip Larkin a great deal.

Your version's fun. But I am quoting the actual words (They fuck you up, your Mum and Dad) that IMHO most people remember and enjoy the most of all.

Is not PL remembered and beloved precisely because of this sort of thing, as well as for 'Whitsun Weddings', 'An Arundel Tomb', 'Dockery and Son', etc?

(PS Like your version, though.)

[SpokenVerse]

@moirasmith I have recorded all the poems you mention. On my channel page, put the name - any quotation might work - into the box marked "Search Uploads". Or go to Playlists and choose Larkin.

It was Adrian Mitchell who wrote the poem above. I'm glad you didn't mind me pulling your leg. 

[joez181]

Who is the reader, please?

[SpokenVerse]

@joez181 Me, Tom O'Bedlam.  I read everything in this SpokenVerse Channel

[moirasmith]

@SpokenVerse

Leg pulled very successfully :) Familiar with Adrian Mitchell (one of the Liverpool Poets of the 60s) but this must have been written after I got really old cos I didn't recognise it;(

I will look out for your other postings; Philip Larkin is truly one of my fave 20th C poets ... in fact, casting more widely than 20thC (ie even excluding D Thomas and Yeats) I'm starting to think in my old age it's PL v Donne. xx

[eversley19]

I love this poem; thank you so much.

[searcherboy]

One of the best English poems of the past 100 years. Thanks.

[mudvaynechick]

I've missed your readings!