Philip Larkin: High Windows

1. Read through Philip Larkin's High Windows (1974) several times before
attempting the questions which follow it.

"When I see a couple of kids

and guess he's fucking her and she's
taking pills or wearing a diaphragm,
I know this is paradise

everyone old has dreamed of all their lives –

bonds and gestures pushed to one side
like an outdated combine harvester,
and everyone young going down the long slide
to happiness, endlessly. I wonder if
anyone looked at me, forty years back,
and thought, That'll be the life;
no God anymore, or sweating in the dark

about hell and that, or having to hide

what you think of the priest. He
and his lot will all go down the long slide
like free bloody birds. And immediately

rather than words comes the thought of high windows:

the sun-comprehending glass,
and beyond it, the deep blue air, that shows
nothing, and is nowhere, and is endless."

a) How is the generation gap reflected in this poem? In your view, what is
the poet's attitude towards the younger generation?
This poem reflects the lifestyle of three generations: that of the poet's
elders, his own, and that of the younger generation. In his poem, he envies
the freedom of the young.

b) What is the effect of the enjambments (the lack of breaks from stanza to
stanza)employed by Larkin in this poem?
They make the poem flow and also suggest the continuity between the
succeeding generations.

c) What is the effect of the colloquialisms employed by Larkin in this

poem?
Larkin implies that modernity is partly about being able to use language
freely, disregarding old-fashioned notions of decorum. When Larkin says
about the young couple. In that point he may criticisies their sexual
freedom. On the other hand, he may be breaking taboos associated with his
own generation, using a "forbidden" word.

d) In your opinion, what is the meaning of the"'high windows"?

The "high windows" may be a symbol of death or an infinite, eternal peace
beyond the specific concerns of this world.