비초월성의 시학

The Poetics of Non-Transcendence: A Study of Time and Mortality in Philip Larkin's Poetry

This study aims to examine the tendency of non-transcendence in Larkin's poems which deal with time and mortality. Unlike Yeats and Eliot who try to transcend time-bound reality with esoteric and atemporal symbols, Larkin accepts that men cannot avoid the ageing process and ultimate death. Breaking up with Yeats who predominates his earlier poetry, Larkin turns to Hardy's poetry. He finds his congeniality with Hardy who does not attempt to transcend the ordinary world controlled by the passing of time in aspiration for eternity. Under the influence of Hardy, Larkin accepts the natural ageing process "with equanimity" in contrast to Yeats who struggles to overcome old age with "unageing intellect" and magnificent soul. This tendency of non-transcendence is based on Larkin's realistic and pessimistic view that man cannot escape the complete emptiness and extinction accompanied by death. Larkin shows the futility of attempts to "contravene the coming dark" in his poems about death. In "The Building," people visit a hospital instead of a church to confess "something has gone wrong," but in spite of their struggle "to transcend the thought of dying," nothing blocks the ultimate extinction. In this poem, presenting the image of "a locked church" outside the hospital, he also suggests the futility of religion to cure people of dread with the promise of eternal life. In "Aubade," Larkin continues to point out that religion compared to "vast moth-eaten musical brocade/ Created to pretend we never die" cannot transcend the fear of death in the end. Even though Larkin gives no hope to readers with his bleak view of life, he at least refuses to delude them into a false belief that "There will be anything else" after death. Larkin's poetry is an honest record of "the less deceived."