11.

Poetry after World War II: Philip Larkin and Seamus Heaney
 Philip Larkin: “Church Going”, “High Windows”
 Seamus Heaney: “Bogland,” “Digging” OR “Punishment”
I.Introduction:
World War II ended in 1945 and its conclusion marked an important shift in Great Britain’s global
role. For the first time, Britain was a secondary imperial power, something that was painful for many
British citizens. The expectations after the war were that the economy would again rise, but inflation
and unemployment led to an overall increase in national cynicism. Postmodernism found most of its
success in America and was difficult to identify in England, as many Modernist writers continued to
write well into the 1940s and 50s. Postmodernism incorporates the idea that the world is in a state of
incompleteness. Postmodernists believe that there are many truths and that knowledge comes from
perspective. Stemming from this is the tendency for Postmodernists to have a skeptical approach to
culture, literature, and art, often leading the movement to be associated with deconstructionism.
Although this approach can be found in some of the literature of the time, the writing during this
period was very diverse.
II. Philip Larkin

 Born in Coventry, educated at the U of Oxford

 Librarian for many years at the U of Hull
 Poems of his first volume, The North Ship (1945) show Yeats’s strong influence
 After discovering Hardy’s Collected Poems, he found his own voice.
 Like Hardy and Auden, he wrote novels (Jill (1946) and Girl in Winter (1947)

-he belonged to a group called The Movement, which was establised in the 50s. Nine writers belonged
to the group: Kingsley Amis, Robert Conquest, Donald Davie, John Holloway, Elizabeth Jennings,
Philip Larkin, John Wain, Thom Gunn, Iris Murdoch. What’s common in them is that all of them were
concerned with the Englishness of their works.
their artictic attitude was the respect for clarity
they were all hostile to modernist literature ( doubts abour Eliot )
-he was the complete opposite of what a Romantic poet was: he was coolly detached observer of life,
his art/poetry is characterized by objectivity, rational irony
-he was a spiritual child of Thomas Hardy: he learned from him how to use common place details of
life to make tough and memorable poems
Church going:
-First published in The Less Deceived in 1955
-"Church Going" remains one of Philip Larkin's best-known poems.
- Its speaker casually visits an empty church, a place he views with skeptical irreverence.
Nevertheless, the speaker admits that he's drawn to churches and speculates about what will become of
them once religion itself has completely died out. Though he sees no future for the beliefs that
churches promote, the speaker suggests that people will always need some version of the atmosphere
they provide: one of human togetherness and "serious" contemplation of life and death. The pun in the
title hints at the poem's themes: the speaker believes that churches are going as in vanishing, but that
some form of "churchgoing" will survive.
Topics:
1.The role of religion in society
"Church Going" is a meditation on how society will (and won't) change when religion no longer holds
any place in it. The speaker, a skeptic who visits a church while biking through the countryside,
assumes that religion is dying and churches are sliding into irrelevance. Yet as he tries to imagine the
fate of churches in a future without any religion at all, he decides that even non-believers like himself
will still find some kind of power in what these buildings represented. Though old doctrines will fade,
the poem suggests, some people will always seek out the "serious," ceremonious attitude that religion
took toward life and death, because it's part of human nature to search for purpose and meaning.

The speaker visits an empty church despite being a non-believer, and his behavior in this setting shows
a mix of respectful fascination and irreverence. He stops by as if on a whim, while cycling through the
countryside, yet also admits that he does this "often." He removes "[his] cycle-clips in awkward
reverence," a comic detail suggesting that he's not sure how to act in this setting, but feels some
instinct toward respect even as a non-believer. He clowns around a bit in the empty church, but also
leaves a donation—though it's essentially worthless. He describes his attitude toward the church as
"Bored, uninformed," and well aware that the place holds no "ghostly" aura. His actions, however,
reveal ambivalence: even in his skepticism, he's drawn to the place.

The speaker's combined interest in and rejection of the church leads him to imagine a future in which
religion has vanished, yet churches themselves still hold a peculiar appeal. In asking "When churches
fall completely out of use / What we shall turn them into," he assumes that this change will happen:
he's a modern skeptic who views religion as archaic and dying. He speculates about a future in which
"belief," "superstition," and even "disbelief" are gone—that is, in which religion no longer holds any
claim on human society, even as a rejected idea. Even then, however, he suggests that people like
himself will still find power in the mere atmosphere of the church, which they may go so far as to seek
out in defunct, decaying houses of worship.

Ultimately, the speaker identifies the primary power of the church (or religion) as its "serious[ness],"
suggesting that this aspect will endure even after all the church's doctrines, rituals, and physical
structures have crumbled. He admits that, for all his religious skepticism, he likes visiting the church
because it's a "serious house on serious earth." That is, it's devoted to solemn respect for matters of life
and death that may be trivialized elsewhere.

Though he does think that churches and organized religion will die out, he also sympathizes with their
serious purpose and believes that some people will always share this sympathy. Thus, he asserts that
this aspect of religious life "never can be obsolete," even as all others fade. Even unused churches will
still draw some people, if only because their proximity to death (graveyards) makes them seem natural
places to ponder the meaning of life.

While "Church Going" is sometimes irreverent in tone, it takes churches, and the human needs they're
supposed to serve, very seriously. Though it never tips toward actual religious belief, it assumes that
those needs will live on even as churches die out and thoughtfully considers how society will respond.
High Windows:
- "High Windows" explores the differences in society that emerged throughout the 1960s. The poem
begins with the poet looking at two young people and knowing that they are able to have sex with one
another while using the birth control methods that were made available following extended campaigns
in Britain in the 1960s. He describes this as "paradise." The poet then wonders whether a person might
have looked at him in the same appraising light 40 years earlier. Society during the early 20th century
had begun to move away from religion and there seemed to be "no God any more." The poet thinks of
the sky seen through high windows. The sky seems endless and empty.
- The main themes of this poem are generational changes and sexual freedom. The poet suggests that
what one person might see as freedom is not the same as what that person is experiencing. The speaker
looks at and judges youthful relationships while comparing his interpretation of them to his
experiences. But, he’s also aware that the older generations may have seen his freedoms as
increasingly liberal.
III.Seamus Heaney
-Irish writer, was awarded to Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996
-he grew up on his father’s cattle farm in Northern Ireland
-he was the eldest of a Catholic family of 9 childrenhe was the first intellectual in the family
-first he became a secondary school teacher then a university lecturer
-throughout his career, his public readings of his poetry were immensely popular
-he was also a researcher of Old Englisretranslated Beouwulf
-main themes of him: a) exploration of the deep ( characterises his early books: Death of a Naturalist,
Door into the Dark based on his own memories): his poetry is pervaded with a sort of fascination for
the darkness and the depths explore this depth, darkness!!--> this longing is expressed through a lot
of images: digging, wells, exhumation, etc.
b)violence and social injustice
c) individualistic meditations
Digging:
- "Digging" is one of the most widely known poems by the Irish poet Seamus Heaney and
serves as the opening poem of Heaney's debut 1966 poetry collection, Death of a Naturalist
- It begins with the speaker hovering over a blank page with a pen, preparing to write. The
speaker then reflects on the work ethic and skill of his father and grandfather, both of whom
worked the land as farmers. Though the speaker is breaking with that specific familial
tradition, the speaker presents writing as its own kind of labor, with speaker vowing to "dig"
with the pen.
Topics:
1.Labor and craft: Most simply, “Digging” is a poem about work. As the speaker, a writer, holds a pen
in one hand, he hears his father, a former farmer, working the ground outside. The speaker admires his
father for his determination to work tirelessly and the skill with which he uses a spade. Though the
speaker metaphorically digs for words rather than into the earth, he still draws inspiration from the
work ethic and expertise of his father (and grandfather). The poem, then, elevates manual labor by
imbuing it with a sense of craft and artistry, while also insisting on the act of writing itself as a kind of
work.
In the opening of “Digging,” the speaker is poised to start writing, his pen hovering above the page.
But when he hears the sound of his father digging in the flowerbeds beneath the speaker's window, it
brings back memories of his father digging potatoes many years before. Though to some people
digging might seem like a pretty dull and repetitive task, the speaker presents it as a kind of artistry.
He focuses admiringly in minute detail on his father’s technique, while also acknowledging the
physical difficulty of the work.
Digging is presented as a complex and technical process, one involving neat "potato drills" (the rows
of potatoes in the ground), the strength to send a shovel deep into the earth again and again, and the
knowledge of how and when to scatter crops. "By God, the old man could handle a spade," the speaker
says, emphasizing the expertise required of his father's labor.
Thinking about all this prompts the speaker to reflect on his grandfather too. Like the speaker’s father,
the older man provides an example of how best to approach work: through determination and skill.
The speaker recounts how he once took some milk to his grandfather while he was digging—the
grandfather drank the milk and got straight back to work, demonstrating his total commitment to the
job at hand. Through the memory of these two men, then, the poem shows appreciation for dedication
and effort—seeing the physical act of digging as an inspiration for writing poetry.
That’s why the first and last stanzas are very different, even though they are almost identical on first
look. Both focus on the same image—the speaker holding a pen above a page—but it’s in the final
stanza when he resolves to actually write. Except he doesn’t say “write”; he says “dig.” His father and
grandfather provide a model for a way for the speaker to approach his work. And though the two types
of work—manual and imaginative—are very different, writing is presented as its own kind of labor—
one that that, though it may not require blood, sweat, and tears, certainly requires commitment and
effort.

2. Family and tradition:

Digging” explores the relationship between three generations: the speaker, his father, and the
speaker’s grandfather. The speaker lives a very different life to his forebears—he’s a writer, whereas
his father and grandfather were farmers. But even though he isn’t a digger of the earth, the speaker
realizes that he can still honor his heritage by embracing the values of his elders. The speaker’s life
and art are shaped by his history, and in that history he sees a model for how to approach his own
craft. In doing so, the poem argues, the speaker is in fact paying tribute to his father and grandfather.
One doesn't have to follow in their ancestors' footsteps exactly to honor and preserve their heritage.
The speaker’s father worked the earth, just like his father before him. Both men used a spade skillfully
and were engaged in tough manual labor. Between those two men, then, there’s an obvious sense of
continuity, of skills and heritage being passed down from one generation to the next. The speaker,
however, represents a break with this tradition. Though he remembers the “squelch and slap” of
“soggy earth” and the “cold smell of potato mould,” he either can’t or doesn’t want to follow his
elders into the same kind of work. Instead, he is a writer—something that, on the surface at least, is
about as far removed from physical labor as is possible.
The speaker acknowledges this—he knows he has “no spade to follow men like them.” But just
because he is breaking with tradition in a literal sense, in another way he resolves to embody the
values of that tradition. Hard work, grit, concentration, persistence—all of these are traits that the
father and grandfather figures have taught to the speaker, who can now use them in his own way. This
shows that the speaker is a part of his family tradition, just in a different way, and also demonstrates
that the people someone grows up with can have a huge impact on how they see the world in later life
(even if they led very different lives).
Accordingly, the poem ends on a plain-sounding expression of the speaker’s intent: “The squat pen
rests. / I’ll dig with it.” Just as the speaker’s father and grandfather approached their work with
diligence, the speaker will do the same in his writing. The use of “dig” as the main verb here makes it
clear that the lessons the speaker learned from his father and grandfather will have a great role to play
in what is to come—ensuring that tradition, in one way or another, is honored.

The punishment:
-Punishment’ was inspired by bog bodies. Punishment’, in particular, is written to Windeby I, a bog
body found in Germany that was believed to be a girl. In the poem, the lyrical voice imagines the life
of a girl charged with adultery. This ancient form of brutality relates to that of the end of the twentieth
century and The Troubles in Ireland, relating past and present through an act of violence.

the Troubles, also called Northern Ireland conflict, violent sectarian conflict from about
1968 to 1998 in Northern Ireland between the overwhelmingly Protestant unionists (loyalists),
who desired the province to remain part of the United Kingdom, and the
overwhelmingly Roman Catholic nationalists (republicans), who wanted Northern Ireland to
become part of the republic of Ireland