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In a discussion of Philip Larkin’s unpublished manuscript, “In the Grip of Light,” A. T. Tolley notes that Larkin, in his early years, evinced a “growing admiration for [Thomas] Hardy’s poetry” (78). This admiration understandably resulted in Hardy’s having a strong influence on Larkin’s poems, and readers quickly can see similarities between the poems of the two writers. Lolette Kuby, for example, points out similarities in language, imagery, style, mood, and diction (23-4). Among these many similarities is also a concern over a belief in the Christian God of the Anglican Church. Both poets present extremely skeptical views of this God’s existence—a skepticism that becomes readily apparent in the poets’ uses of church and churchyard images in their texts. Hardy’s churches represent his own faith in God, but Larkin’s churches represent the faith of other people while simultaneously acting as an indicator of Larkin’s own belief. For both poets, the churchyard is a symbol of atheism, a complete disbelief in the Christian God. Hardy uses these images almost excessively, brooding in the churchyard in many poems but daring to enter the church itself in only a few texts. Larkin, however, does not use the images as frequently, but when he does, he uses them in such a way as to express even more skepticism than Hardy. Thus, Larkin is by no means a mere imitator of Hardy. Instead, he takes the church and churchyard images from Hardy and transforms them into his own statement of skepticism, sometimes merging church and churchyard.
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