Faith Healing

 

Faith Healing

Perhaps a critique of women, or maybe an attack on religion in an age of secularisation, in this poem Larkin describes a group of women proceeding to a faith healer in order to be cleansed.

 

Analysis

In many ways, much like Larkin's 'Water', this poem attacks the very 'construct' of religion, seeing its transparency. The Healer himself is dressed in a 'dark suit' a symbol of secrecy and deception, he is immediately presented as a sinister figure. There is a strong irony in the preaching's of the Healer  of the , as the women are promised the 'warm spring rain of loving care'- a vision of security and safety  yet the Healer sifts through them, 'scarcely pausing' in a rushed and chaotic form that is mirrored in the conflicting ABCABDABCD rhyme scheme. The 'scarce' idea implies a lacking validity to the Healer's words and arguably to religion in general, as seen in the transparent imagery of Larkin's 'water'. There is something uneasy about the italic form of 'dear child', it denotes a clichéd, patronising tone that we would not expect of a guidance figure.

The caesura of the declarative, 'nothing cures.' is poignant in a poem of almost no punctuation, it allows us time to reflect on what isn't curing- is this an attack on the inadequacy of religion in mans struggle to inevitable death, the semi-colon dividing 'exile' is symbolic of this, the lonely position of women after they leave and the lonely position of man in the real world outside of the religious façade. Or perhaps, 'nothing cures.' deals with this idea of perfection versus reality, the conflict of the women's hope with their real disillusionment, supported by the half rhyme at the end- 'loved' and 'disproved' which embodies that lack of fulfilment from religion.

 

Indeed also, this poem can be seen as a commentary on women. Their 'sheepishly stray' position highlights a juvenile weakness, their vulnerability to be lead and manipulated by the Faith Healer. This in conjunction with their 'idiot child' depiction, Larkin could be seen as pitying their juvenile ways or alternatively, adopting the traditional mind set that women are indeed irresponsible and passive- as a stark contrast to the woman within Sunny Prestatyn. Both poems see a very negative portrayal of the female. \I feel that by the close of the poem, the observer has very much adopted a sympathetic attitude towards the weak, manipulated women as the 'landscape weeps' in an overwhelming pathos of their disillusionment.