{"id":17341,"date":"2011-06-17T11:25:29","date_gmt":"2011-06-17T15:25:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=17341"},"modified":"2011-06-17T11:58:36","modified_gmt":"2011-06-17T15:58:36","slug":"fathers-day-church-going","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/17\/fathers-day-church-going\/","title":{"rendered":"Father’s Day; Church Going"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Dear Lorin:
Father\u2019s Day is coming up, and this year I want to get my dad something he\u2019ll actually read. The last three books I am certain he has read are: something by George Pelecanos<\/a>, <\/em>Lush Life<\/a> by Richard Price, and certainly something by Sue Grafton<\/a>. What would be something different, but not too different?
Best,
Bryant<\/em><\/p>\n

Bryant? My long-lost half-brother? Can it really be you?<\/p>\n

On the theory that our fathers are the same person, I would recommend Pete Dexter<\/a>, Scott Spencer<\/a>, the oft-mentioned-in-this-column Elmore Leonard<\/a>, and maybe most of all The Main<\/a><\/em>, by Trevanian, about which I remember almost nothing except that Dad lent it to me once when I was home sick and said it was really good. (And that I liked it, too.)<\/p>\n

Dear Paris Review<\/em>,
I have been struggling to understand the final stanza of Philip Larkin\u2019s \u201cChurch Going<\/a>\u201d for a month or so. The more I think about it, the more I doubt my thoughts. Could someone please help give an explication of the stanza? I\u2019m having problems answering bigger and smaller questions\u2014for example, why is the air \u201cblent\u201d? Who is recognizing \u201cour compulsions\u201d? And why are they \u201crobed as destinies\u201d? And by whom are they robed? And to what is \u201cthat\u201d referring in the line \u201cthat much can never be obsolete\u201d? The final two lines baffle me as well. I\u2019m sorry. Usually I am a very good close reader, but I have failed with this one. Please help. \u2014Caroline Grey<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

A serious house on serious earth it is,
In whose blent air all our compulsions meet,
Are recognized, and robed as destinies.
And that much never can be obsolete,
Since someone will forever be surprising
A hunger in himself to be more serious,
And gravitating with it to this ground,
Which, he once heard, was proper to grow wise in,
If only that so many dead lie round.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

P.S. It wouldn\u2019t hurt to remind your readers how to read poetry well. Consider this a general service, too.<\/em><\/p>\n

Thank you for sending me back to \u201cChurch Going<\/a>.\u201d I enjoyed rereading it and thinking about it again. I\u2019m afraid these (very rudimentary, very literal-minded) answers will have occurred to you, but here is where I\u2019d start:<\/p>\n

1) The air is blended in the sense that it holds, in solution, a mixture of smells and associations (see stanza five). But why \u201cblent\u201d? Why such an archaic, literary word? At the very beginning of the poem, when the speaker walks into the church, he finds a \u201ctense, musty, unignorable silence \/ Brewed God knows how long.\u201d (Get it, God knows?) By the end of the poem, that defensive, jokey tone is gone. The speaker is trying to make his language live up to the dignity he sees in the church. That\u2019s how it strikes me, anyway.<\/p>\n

(Here and throughout, Larkin makes a big deal of the church as container. He starts off by wondering about the roof, how old it is and whether it\u2019s in good repair. He associates the end of \u201csuperstition\u201d with the caving-in of the roof, when all that\u2019s left is \u201cGrass, weedy pavement, brambles, buttress, sky.\u201d He calls the church a \u201cspecial shell,\u201d and so on.)<\/p>\n

2) Who is recognizing our compulsions? Yes. Exactly. I think this question goes straight to the heart of the poem. If there is no one in the church (no God, no clergy, no belief, no superstition), then there is<\/em> no one to recognize our compulsions. There is no one to call them sins and forgive them. No one to take them seriously. No promise that we will be rewarded or punished for what we do or given a \u201cdestiny\u201d that is special to ourselves.<\/p>\n

3) Why \u201crobed\u201d? We tend to think of robes as royal or ceremonial garments and as symbols of redemption: \u201cLo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb\u201d (Revelation 7:9-10). To take our compulsions (a quasimedical term borrowed from psychiatry) and robe them as destinies is to … well, you can decide what that might mean, no?<\/p>\n

4) By \u201cthat much,\u201d I think Larkin means the feeling that the church is \u201ca serious house on serious earth.\u201d In the last lines of the poem he tries to explain this feeling\u2014or at least say where it comes from.<\/p>\n

Again, these are just places you might start. My next question would probably have to do with the tone of that last stanza. Is there something not quite serious about that line \u201cA serious house on serious earth it is\u201d? Is there something wishful, and ironic, about \u201cblent\u201d? And so on. Another reader might ask how much the last lines had to do with churches and how much with poems about churches. Both readers would be asking questions, not just about what\u2019s on the page, but about their own biases and interests and … compulsions.<\/p>\n

So, as for your most general question\u2014how to read poetry well\u2014I have no idea, except to pay attention to the specific words on the page, and the implied tone of voice, and to think about what you read. Just what you\u2019re doing. It sounds childish to say, but one thing I like about poems is that you are allowed to stare at them, and think about them, for as long as you like. In this sense, they resemble slow movies, or portraits, or nudes, or most of what we think of as art: poems give you permission to pay attention to a degree that would be rude or embarrassing face to face with, for example, a person.<\/p>\n

Have a question for <\/em>The Paris Review? E-mail<\/a> us.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Lorin:Father\u2019s Day is coming up, and this year I want to get my dad something he\u2019ll actually read. The last three books I am certain he has read are: something by George Pelecanos, Lush Life by Richard Price, and certainly something by Sue Grafton. What would be something different, but not too different?Best,Bryant Bryant? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[2593,2598,2591,284,2599,2596,2253,165,2592,2594,2597,2595],"class_list":["post-17341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ask-the-paris-review","tag-church-going","tag-elmore-leonard","tag-fathers-day","tag-george-pelecanos","tag-how-to-read-poetry","tag-pete-dexter","tag-philip-larkin","tag-poetry","tag-reading-suggestions","tag-richard-price","tag-scott-spencer","tag-sue-grafton"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFather's Day; Church Going by Lorin Stein<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"June 17, 2011 \u2013 Dear Lorin:Father\u2019s Day is coming up, and this year I want to get my dad something he\u2019ll actually read. 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