Reminiscent On The Innocence Before The Great War

Reminiscent on the innocence before the Great War, Philip Larkin’s “MCMXIV” functions as a memorial to pay tribute to the physical and social devastations caused by war. Larkin attempts to look at the past as a bygone time and commemorates the lost innocence of the English people.

The first few lines of the poem paints a portrait of bodies standing in “those long uneven lines.” Larkin compares this to men patiently yet eagerly waiting to enter the sporting grounds. However, Larkin chooses not to specify the definitive purpose for the line. This image can therefore also be interpreted as men nobly lining up outside the recruiting office at the start of World War I eager to serve based on a false notion that enlisting in war was simply a game.

Larkin’s description of “bleached” (9) and “shut” (9) shops illustrates the toll the war has had on everyday life. The colors of the everyday have been washed white with time and as business has been shut down and life has been halted. Although the “dark-clothed children at play” (12) seem innocent and commonplace, there is an ominous under tone. Dark and black clothing are often reserved for mourning. The children represent the innocence that is no more, after losing their father in war. The Great War took many lives; the death of fathers, sons, and brothers impacted many families. The dark-clothed children also symbolize the young men who will join the war and die without ever having the chance to experience life. As these children at play grow older they will lose their innocence either lured by “tin advertisements” (14) or forced to defend their country “called after [by] kings and queens” (13).

In the final stanza, Larkin repeats the phrase “never such innocence” in the first and last lines. Larkin attempts to cling onto this idea of the innocence of the past stressing that it can never be found again after the war. Larkin does not specify whether the men return after leaving for the war “without a word” (28). However, Larkin’s reference to “the thousands of marriages / lasting a little while longer” (30-31) indicates how these lifetime relationships are destined to be cut short because of the war. Innocence can never be found again after the war and so has become part of the