Philip Larkin was 52 years old when he published his collection of poems “High Windows” in 1974. He used plain speech to address his readers and the themes that run throughout the collection concern themselves with references to the past and future and to the generation gap that existed between Larkin, as a middle-aged man and the younger generation that he observes around him. In the poem “High Windows” he begins by examining the sexual freedoms of the younger generation and compares it with his own lack of opportunity. For Larkin the young have been granted “paradise” by the advances in contraception that was developed in the 1960’s.
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
Larkin uses a colloquial swear word in the first stanza to express his feelings of bitterness and disappointment that he was too old to take part in the new permissive society. The word ‘fucking’ is not used merely for shock value, although members of Larkin’s generation may have been shocked by its use, such words were more acceptable in the world of the ‘couple of kids’ and this places distance between the older and younger generations.. Despite Larkin’s dissatisfaction with what has been allowed his era, he looks at how life has treated those who were old when he was young.
I wonder if / Anyone looked at me, forty years back, / And thought, That’ll be the life; / No God any more, or sweating in the dark/About hell and that
Larkin seems to feel that life treats each successive generation better but that this progress
is not easily seen at the time. We say to ourselves “That’ll be the life” far more than we say
“This is the life” and this indicates that we ultimately feel that we cannot attain what we
want or even think we want. This allows Larkin the opportunity to show the polar attitudes
that prevailed during each of the generations that he refers to. After the austerity and
conservatism of the post war years, the 1960’s were affluent, permissive and liberal. Moral
censorship was weakening, legislation on abortion, homosexuality and the granting of
easier divorce had been introduced and youth culture was flourishing. The older generation
of Larkin’s youth are shown to be jealous of the freedom that young people have with
respect to the church and the lack of control it had over their lives, whilst Larkin’s
generation are concerned at having missed out on the so called sexual revolution that they
see taking place around them.
The surprise element in this poem comes as Larkin further examines the freedom given to
ensuing generations and he is confronted by sudden optimism.
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.
Larkin, for the time being, abandons his usual pessimism to extol the virtue of looking forward and upward: his view of the future is one of hope that is evident in the image of “high windows”, out of reach and unknown for those living in the present, and the “deep blue air” which illustrates the everlasting utopia that will be the legacy of future generations.
In “High Windows” we can identify a Larkin who has long left behind his youth but who is not yet recognised as being old. Life for him may have been disappointing but he has, nonetheless, developed his observations of life and its expectations and his hopeful view looks toward the future and all its possibilities for humanity.