Going Going - Analysis

Philip Larkin, an eminent writer during the post war England, was commonly referred to as “England’s other poet”- Laureate’ until his death. He is acknowledged as the key figure of the group known as The Movement Poetry which began publishing widely in the mid 1950s. “Going Going”, being a government commissioned poem by the department of Environment, British government was originally titled “Prologue”. It is one of the finest works of Larkin. Larkin wrote this poem in 1972. The poem is about the loss of nature and its effects on human beings and the universe. The title stops before “Gone” perhaps because the poet hopes human beings will stop to ponder over their actions before the destruction becomes complete. ‘Going Going, Gone’ is the standard phrase used by an auctioneer when all bids have been made and the sale is completed.

The poet says that the landscape of England as a green and pleasant surrounding is going away and is being replaced by gradual developments. At the beginning of the poem, the poet is very optimistic about the future of England. He says that he thought that the future of the country was safe and that nature would last his time. But it is already gone. The people of England along with the poet believed that the country would not be overwhelmed by developments. But on the contrary, the country was unable to maintain its natural beauty and was destroyed by industrialization. The poet says that he knew that there would be alarms, which would be false. Here all the predictions of the poet turn out to be wrong.

By the third stanza, there is a change in the poet’s initial belief. The poet gradually realizes how the environment has suffered drastically as a result of our taking advantage of it. The following  stanzas  indicate that the beautiful landscapes of the country are being replaced by modern constructions like buildings, cafes and also the young people demands for more Caravan sites, more money etc. And later in this  stanza the poet mourns for the lost beauty of England. And he also gives an alarm that this progress in country will make the people dishonest and these developments will lead to the destruction of beauty of the country by cutting down trees and building industries. By such developments all the valuable treasures of the country will be lost forever. In the final stanza the poet predicts about the future of England where all natural beauty will be gone. The country which was once beautiful will become a concrete desert by the impact of Industrialization.

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