Water by Philip Larkin

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Water

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 litany 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.

Philip Larkin

Read poems about / on: water, light

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Kay Vitter (9/18/2008 5:37:00 PM)
Indeed, water and religion go way back and one way to look at this poem would be as a commentary on that, and it makes you think. You could also simply look at this poem as a tribute to the sometimes refreshing and purifying experience that the old H2O can bring. But no matter what you get out of it, it certainly takes nothing from of it.