Theme of Love-An Arundel Tomb

Theme of Love

An Arundel Tomb by Philip Larkin
'An Arundel Tomb' refers to the monument in Chichester Cathedral which displays two lovers lying side-by-side, each holding the others stone hand. Although the sculpture provides faith and is a sign of 'eternal love', Larkin argues that love 'isn't stronger than death just because statues hold hands for 600 years.'

Their faces are described as being 'blurred' and 'Their proper habits vaguely shown' which implies how their relationship was superficial, what you see on the statue is not what their relationship was truly like, it's 'vaguely shown.'

The idea that the surface of intimacy and love is in fact untrue is reinforced by 'they would not think to lie so long'. The word 'lie' creates an image of the figures lying down on their backs, however the word holds the connotations of untruth and unfaithfulness. It could be argued that Larkin is telling the reader of how the hand-holding is a false image of love, and that the characters were perhaps not intimate and happy in love when they were alive. Larkin then describes the 'faithfulness in effigy Was just a detail friends would see' which implies that the faith shown is not a true representation of the love which the figures felt for each other, strenghting the idea that the relationship was superficial. 

 In the fifth stanza, Larkin says 'Persisted, linked, through lengths and breadths Of time. Snow fell, undated. Light Each summer thronged the glass' showing how the time passesn and the seasons change. The idea that the couple was linked through life and still linked through death is presented here, although the couple may not have been happy they stuck together. The sun could be interpretated as the happy times, just like the snow which could be interpretated as the unhappy
times in the relationship.

In the final stanza, Larkin describes how 'Time has transfigured them into Untruth' which depicts the way in which the faithfulness shown through the intimate hand-hold is not an accurate representation of the truth. The statue draws attention to their hands which presents the idea of 'eternal love' which is the 'romantic side.' However people are unable to see what is beyond, esentially the truth. Moreover, the final line of the seventh stanza expresses 'Our almost-instinct almost true: What will survive of us is love'.  Larkin is revealing that mankind have a natural instinct to believe that what will survive of us is love, whereas this is only 'almost true', suggesting that it is in fact false and untrue.