An Arundel Tomb Flashcards
(14 cards)
Side by side
Side by side, their faces blurred,
Their proper
Their proper habits vaguely shown
sharp tender shock,
sharp tender shock,
His hand withdrawn, holding her hand
They would not think
They would not think to lie so long.
Thrown off in
Thrown off in helping to prolong
The Latin names around the base.
They would not guess
They would not guess how early in
Their supine stationary voyage
The air would turn to soundless damage
How soon succeeding
How soon succeeding eyes begin
To look, not read.n
Litter of birdcalls
Litter of birdcalls strewed the same
Bone-riddled ground.
And up the paths
And up the paths
The endless altered people came,
Washing at their identity.
helpless in the hollow of
helpless in the hollow of
An unarmorial age
Above their scrap
Above their scrap of history,
Only an attitude remains:
Time has transfigured
Time has transfigured them into
Untruth.
Our almost-instinct
Our almost instinct almost true:
What will survive of us is love.
Precis
An Arundel Tomb, written in Iambic tetrameter, 7 regular stanzas with regular rhyme, describes a medieval tomb of two lovers holding hands, and leaves Larkin to consider the relationship between love and status against time.
