An Arundel Tomb

To me this poem spoke out about decay of love. From stanza one you get across the vision of erosion and decay through the description of their features. Their features are described as being: vague, faint and blurred. The tomb was made for their family and they had no idea that this many people would have seen it. It was a private tomb for family/ friends and now its this tourist attraction. 'To look not read' shows the ignorance of the people visiting because they don't know the meaning behind what they are looking at. The tomb used to be so symbolic and the meaning has just been lost 'washing at their identity' the people viewing it are symbolic of the change in society and the generations of people viewing the tomb. The meaning changes and wears off like the same as over washing something the colour will wash/fade. People think the tomb is symbolic of love 'transfigured' modern visitors believe and project their desired meaning i.e of love onto this gesture. The tomb is holding hands so people automatically think that is the meaning of the tomb. 'What will survive of us is love' if you were to ready the final line of the final stanza you would think this is a love poem it sort of shows after death something survives and that is love when really the line before completely changes the meaning of the last line. Larkin said 'Love isn't stronger than death because statues hold hands for 600 years' This just shows that Larkin didn't want this to be a love poem.