Faith Healing is an ambiguous poem that seems critical of religion. At the start of the poem, many flock to the Faith Healer but by the third stanza, the 20 seconds with the American seem to have ruined their lives. They have had their true feelings and emotions unlocked and have realised that they have never really been loved.
‘An immense slackening ache….Spreads slowly through them’.
The Faith Healer ‘thaws’ these emotions and we see the women suffer a sense of real loneliness and depression as this reality dawns. This strongly correlates with the theme in Mr Bleaney, a poem exploring loneliness and the fear in which it evokes. In the poem, we are told of Mr Bleaney’s old room that is cheap and not cared for. The persona explores Bleaney’s life. Ironically, he finds he can identify with him in some respects.
‘So it happens that I lie, Where Mr Bleaney lay’.
Mr Bleaney, however, was a very lonely man and the persona tries his hardest to erase these connections. In the poem, Larkin moves from just describing the concrete world, to explore more abstract issues of life, death and individuality.
Another poem that looks at social isolation is Here. The persona describes the busy, bustling city but finds a much more relaxing and breath-taking region on the coast. The area stands in complete loneliness, but here, Larkin approves of the isolation.
One topic that Larkin seems to dwell on is the importance of love. Not only is this referred to in Faith Healing, but is also the main theme for Love Songs In Age. In this poem, a lady discovers old manuscripts of the commercial pop songs of days gone by. The lyrics meant a lot once but it now upsets her to think that this commercial love mentioned in the lyrics, and the love that everyone desires, is simply out of reach. It promised to solve and satisfy, but
‘It had not done so then, and could not now’.
Both these poems reflect attitudes towards the importance of love. In Faith Healing, the women are made to suffer due to never feeling loved, and this is looked upon as very negative. In Love Songs In Age, love is considered important also. Here though, despite not feeling the love talked about in songs, it is obvious that pleasure and another kind of love have still been present. We are told the lady has a daughter and the poem has more positive, joyful aspects, such as
‘One marked in circles by a vase of water’.
This shows affection and love. There must be some satisfaction in this ladies life, flowers symbolize love and passion. Maybe this suggests that although the ‘commercial love’ mentioned in songs is unobtainable, there has actually been an element of love in this ladies life.
In Here, Larkin describes the urban lifestyle of a ‘cut-price crowd’. He tells how they have no real ambition in life and live very simply, from day to day. The people lack desire and are satisfied with their lives. They are shallow and their ideals are to keep living their basic lives with ‘cheap suits’ and ‘red kitchen ware’. This strikes a similarity with Faith Healing. The women who visit the Faith Healer are originally content with their simple life and are just looking for something a little more. They have no real ambition and no major desires. Ironically, by the end of the poem, their emotions are truly evoked and they desire everything that they have missed out on in life, like compassion and love.
Another prominent theme that is carried through most of these poems is that of time. In Here, Larkin describes how time fences us in. He is no longer working at our world of growth and decay, but is now looking at something beyond time. In a similar way, time fenced Mr Bleaney in and the
‘one hired box should make him pretty sure
He warranted no better’.
Love Songs In Age also displays the passing of time.
‘One bleached from lying in a sunny place’.
The manuscripts have been left out and as time has passed, they have lost quality for a number of reasons (here, because they have been left out in the sun). This poem also displays that no matter how much time has passed, this desired love is still no closer.
Faith Healing has a distinct change of attitude to show different times. At the very start, the women eagerly file forward but by the end, they are in desperation. Time has passed and brought new emotions and feelings to these women. Ironically, however, time has now run out.
‘By now, all’s wrong’.
Here, Larkin is saying that it is too late for these women. They now realise their true loneliness, but time has passed and there is nothing they can do to change history. Through all their lives, they have been taught that no one loves or cares for them. They once had the potential to create life and love and care for it themselves if they actually did what had not been done for them.
Another typicality of Faith Healing is the way in which Larkin gives a vivid description, simply through listing. He uses the language economically to conjure a vivid image. In stanza one, when describing the vicar, Larkin lists
‘rimless glasses, silver hair, Dark suit, white collar’.
This is a device which is indeed similar to many of the other poems. In Here, Larkin lists the possessions of the city people,
‘Electric mixers, toasters, washers, driers’.
And finally, from Mr Bleaney,
‘Bed, upright chair, sixty-watt bulb’.
Larkin obviously uses the stark lists to create a greater description and more colourful insight.
Another language feature which is common in the poems is the use of caesura. In Here, Mr Bleaney, Faith Healing and Love Songs In Age, Larkin uses enjambment. The stanza’s freely flow on and if we take Here as an example, the first full stop does not appear until the final verse. This is very effective. In Faith Healing, the first stanza ends,
‘Their heads are clasped abruptly; then, exiled’.
This is an important use of enjambment because with no full stop, we read straight on into the next verse, and this fits perfectly with the poem and story. These women have been given 20 seconds and are then immediately sent away. With no full stop at the end of stanza one, we flow straight into stanza two and feel a sense of being ‘exiled’ like the women in the poem. This is a common feature in Larkin’s poetry, in Here, the first full stop comes when he wants us to dwell on a point.
‘Loneliness clarifies. Here silence stands, Like heat.’
Larkin gives us the full stop as a break; a rest; a rural silence that is appreciated after the hustle and bustle of the city.
Another important theme throughout Larkin’s poetry is deprivation. Larkin once said that deprivation for him, was what daffodils were to Wordsworth, and this is obvious in his poems. Mr Bleaney is deprived of love, friendship and a good standard of living. In Here, the people in the urban cities are described as ‘cut-price’ and are deprived of many things, only being concerned with materialistic possessions. In Love Songs In Age, the lady has been deprived of a type of love she expected. Therefore, Faith Healing is typical in exploring deprivation of love and compassion.
Therefore, in many respects, Faith Healing is indeed
typical of other poems in The Whitsun Weddings. However, there are some notable differences. Philip Larkin claimed never to have written a poem without experiencing the major themes beforehand, with the exception of Faith Healing. This is interesting and explains why the majority of Larkin’s poems are indeed extremely descriptive and omniscient.
Another difference can be found in the concluding stanzas of Faith Healing and Mr Bleaney. Faith Healing concludes with Larkin’s definite viewpoint that these women are now suffering. In Mr Bleaney, however, the ending of the poem is ominous. We are left wondering if Bleaney was preoccupied with limitations of human life or if he was living for the day? The poem ends,
‘I don’t know’.
This indecisive ending, gives us the final verdict and we are left to answer the question ourselves. This is dissimilar to Faith Healing, where Larkin adopts a very sad, yet decisive conclusion.
A final difference that I noted was that of a melancholic attitude. Love Songs In Age seems to suggest that we are never able to find the kind of love that we really desire whereas Faith Healing suggests that if these women had realised their loneliness earlier in life, they could have loved and been loved in return. This is only a slight difference; but is worth considering when asking the question of the typicality of Faith Healing.
Overall, I feel that the similarities outweigh the differences and it can be concluded that Faith Healing is infact quite similar to a selection of the other poems in Whitsun Weddings. There are some differences and Faith Healing is unique in some respects, such as Larkin not experiencing this event personally. However, overall Faith Healing is a typical Larkin poem, with deprivation and loneliness as themes, iambic pentameter and enjambment as language features and with initially descriptive stanza’s before moving on to conclude with a reflective and thoughtful panorama.
