Philip Larkin (9 August 1922 – 2 December 1985 / West Midlands / England)

Unlike Katherine I enjoy this poem. I disagree that Larkin fails to connect because the final verse regonises the value that church buildings have in being places where we can connect with our heritage, our seriousness and where, unlike most places, we find the antithesis of obsolescence. The fact that he spends the early part of the poem describing what is superficially obsolete in the church highlights a paradox that many of us find when our secular environment conflicts with a spirituality that we find hard to accommodate.