The poem
If I were called in To construct a religion I should make use of water.
Going to church Would entail a fording To dry, different clothes;
My liturgy would employ Images of sousing, A furious devout drench,
And I should raise in the east A glass of water Where any-angled light Would congregate endlessly.
Water is life.
It is our survival.
We should protect our water from pollution.
We must not cut the hand that feeds us!
Water is transparent so let us keep it that way for the sake of the future of our children.
Marlene Tellus
26th September 2004
Water is our lifeline.
In this poem a very good use of water is mentioned.
The poem is very nice!
Not "litany." "Liturgy." "My liturgy would employ..." A beautiful poem.
Larkin was not a man of religion and yet a lot of his poems have religious references. In this poem, Larkin, i believe, is saying that water is the essence of life to all living things. Humans are made up of water and the earth is covered by water. Not only is water the essence of our physical life, it can also be seen as the essence of our spiritual life. Its a great poem that clearly a non scholer, unlike myself, would never understand. Good luck on understanding the rest of his poems, if you can!!!
But is this poem a simple as we think? Specifically, is the meaning of this poem that water is our lifeline? It's purity, it's transparancy? I feel like there is more to it than that. What do you think?
the fact that water is the essence of life is an obvious connotation behind the choosing of the title of the poem. But when looking into water it distorts an image. this idea of warp perspective is an important one on this poem. Water can also be destructive through tidal waves, tsunamis and floods.
Water
Larkin wrote this poem as a comment on religion.
in the poem he creates a religion which focuses on the worship of water, even including the rule that his followers would have to ford a river in order to participate in religious contemplation.
he also infers that religion has a tendency to segregate people and exclude them. in his religion anyone can join and worship water. "where any-angled light would congregate endlessy".
religion does divide!
look at Ireland, or the Middle East!
why east
I have rather an uneasiness in reading the lines "And I should raise in the east/A glass of Water".Why did he name "east" and not "west" or anything else?Is it anything to do with religion,hegemony and soperiority? Please think over it.