‘Going, Going’ by Philip Larkin

Question: How does Philip Larkin move from a tone of optimism to pessimism in his poem ‘Going, Going’?

            Answer: Philip Larkin was one of the most highly respected poets of post World War II Britain. He achieved considerable popularity, although an easy poet, and many of his poems offer intriguing insights to the mind of a complex and flawed personality. However, ‘Going, Going’ is another nice poem of Larkin. Here, the title is the key to the whole poem. In Larkin’s view, the landscape of England as a green and pleasant is going away. It is being replaced by shoddy development. Thus, like William Wordsworth, the gradual loss of natural beauty of the country moves the speaker to pessimism from optimism.

            From the beginning of the poem, Philip Larkin has a disillusioned air about the future of England. He thinks that it will last his time. There is a comfortable public belief that traditional England will not be overwhelmed by development. There will always be an England. He knows that there will be alarms, but thinks them false. Despite that, Larkin already signals danger in the words:

“There would always be fields and farms,

Where the village louts could climb

Such trees as were not cut down;”

            The ‘M1café’ in the poem bears the stamp of city life because it is seen in cities and towns not in the country. It also indicates that the beautiful landscape is being replaced with the modern buildings and cafes where a crown of people will spend their time. In addition, the new generation demands more and more houses, caravans sites, pay and so on. Afterwards, the speaker of the poem frustrated and shocked, mourns for the loss of the natural beauty in England in the similar way Wordsworth morns for the loss of natural beauty in ‘Intimation of Immortality’.

“.  .  .I feel somehow

That it isn’t going to last,”

            Later on, the speaker of the poem feels almost alarmed at the thought that after his demise everything will be bricked and there will be a sign of development everywhere because with the passage of time, progress is a must by the dishonest people in society. And such development implies the destruction of the beauty of the county by cutting down trees and by building industries and mills or cafes there. Here, the speaker names the valuable things that will be lost soon in England as:

“The shadows, the meadows, the lanes,

The guildhalls, the carved choirs”

            Towards the end of the poem, the narrator predicts the future of England that there will be time when the natural beauty of the country will vanish with so called development in England. As a result, England losing her past beauty will soon be bleak.

            In summing up the elaborate discussion above, it can be said that once the natural beauty of England was charming that it influenced many a poet along with Wordsworth and John Keats to compose poetry and also gave peace to people but now people have brought a radical change in nature doing cruel things to it. Such loss of natural beauty has left Philip Larkin pessimistic in true sense.