Filling the Gap: A Critical and Social Analysis of "High Windows"

"High Windows," a poem written amidst the sexual revolution of the 1960s, is a reaction from an older generation to a sexually liberated youth. Often, the 1960s are looked upon as a time of profound social change. With Vietnam War protests hailing from college campuses, to experimentation with sex and drugs, the youth were leaping extraordinary social boundaries from the conservative 1950s. It was natural that there'd be tension between the younger generation and an older, different generation. Larkin's poem can be essentially read as a commentary on two different groups of people with two different sets of problems rooted in anything from politics, to religion and even to sexuality. However, "High Windows" isn't an examination of the differences between a sexually liberated generation and a more conservative generation, but rather the search for happiness and freedom that each generation encounters. Even further, "High Windows" isn't solely about the positives in freedom and liberation, but instead captures the darker slice of uncertainty that lies below the surface in the pursuit to replace a sense of natural emptiness. The paradox in "High Windows," between the speaker's desire to relate to the youth of the past and the desire to separate himself from them, stems from the speaker's inability to articulate and separate the different pursuits of freedom of two separate generations.

Through the language and what the speaker chooses to impart to the reader, Larkin accentuates the speaker's desire to understand and relate to a younger generation. Larkin sets the scene almost ironically, by describing "a couple of kids." He continues with a description of their lifestyle: "[I] guess he's fucking her and she's taking pills or wearing a diaphragm." This is a very raunchy and gritty description of a lifestyle unfamiliar to the speaker. However, it isn't until later in the poem, that the reader realizes that it's unnatural for the speaker to describe something so sexually. Larkin waits until the third stanza to tie in the speaker's experience, by saying, "I wonder if / Anyone looked at me, forty years back, / And thought, That'll be the life." These lines confirm that the speaker is in fact, part of an older generation that once dealt with the same emotions of expectation of freedom and loss that the current generation does. In any and all instances of social difference in history, an older generation always longingly looks onto younger generation's newfound opportunities. Most of the time, these newfound opportunities are a form for freedom - whether it be sexual liberation or religious freedom. By embracing the slang used by a younger generation in the first stanza, Larkin ties two generations together by the pursuit to give meaning to their liberation.

Although the generations desired liberation from very different ideas, Larkin ties their experiences together with the paradoxical comparing and contrasting of a journey for freedom. In the second stanza, Larkin presents a much older generation looking back on the speaker's generation and wishing for "no God anymore, or sweating in the dark/ About hell and that." This phrase, while simple, seems to encompass a past (and present) fascination and disdain for religion. It captures each generation's desire for something greater that can make them feel whole. While, it seems as if the speaker's generation managed to get past "hiding what you think of the priest," it didn't solve all their problems with the concept of freedom. With his word choice at the start of the poem, Larkin suggests that finding this sexual release that his generation may not have been able to find is equivalent to sending the priest down "the long slide." Almost to justify, this assumption, Larkin chooses to send the younger generation down "the long slide," as well. The reader can assume that the priests and their lot were forced down the same slide as the youth since they're both described in the same language. This is a reminder of the ambiguity of every generation's experience towards finding some kind spiritual outlet. (The younger generation finds it through climax, the older generation finds it through liberation from religion.) However, Larkin captures an irony in each generation's experience. While, the younger generation is supposed to find that moment of spiritual superiority in climax, he describes them so coldly when he calls sex "fucking," that it's obvious that they are removed from the actual act. It doesn't seem the youth, that has pushed "bonds and gestures to one side," and that has the "paradise/ everyone old has dreamed of all their lives," are really truly happy. Instead, they are headed down that "long slide" that dictates where they go and puts everything out of their control. The speaker truly feels the irony when he comments on being freed from the religious boundaries formally placed on a prior generation. To further tie together all generations pursuit for happiness, the speaker places himself in another generations shoes when he describes being freed from "God...or sweating in the dark about hell and that." However, without the religion and the concept of working towards going to heaven, the speaker feels almost empty, similar to the "nothing, and...nowhere...and endless" beyond the high windows. Both generations seem to go through similar feelings of removal. Once they receive something that a prior generation wasn't given, they don't seem to feel satisfied. The youth slips into a promiscuous meaningless lifestyle free from religious damnation like in prior generations and the older generation feels an endlessness they will never be fulfilled without the concept of religion or even sex.

Larkin further reinforces the ambiguity of every generation's journey, by contrasting the language precisely and carefully. The beginning of the poem really portrays sex in a purely physical way. Larkin writes mostly in a conversational tone, that it's blatantly obvious that he wants to make the sexual act seem impersonal and unfulfilling. By doing so, Larkin presents the younger generation as always in search of the "paradise" that older generation had set out to find. However, the sudden shift at the end of the poem towards the lyric, with hazy language and veiled meaning, openly contrasts the blatant conversational language and tone at the beginning of the poem. When the fourth stanza takes a lyrical turn, and describes, "thought of high windows" coming to the speaker rather than words, "and the deep blue air" beyond them "that shows/ Nothing, and is nowhere, and is endless." This last stanza isn't conversational, but instead more thoughtful and imagistic. The "nothing" and "nowhere" and "endless" beyond the windows, seem to encompass something that goes in all directions forever, but seems to feel empty. The empty words at the beginning of the poem, the use of profanity, slang and sexual jargon that wouldn't hold meaning if they weren't used constantly, mirror the emptiness and pursuit of what is actually beyond the windows. In both cases, each generation is on the search for something that has weight and can give their life meaning. While, they both seem to go through very different journeys, their searches are similar and tied together with emptiness and the constant pursuit of something greater.

Every generation makes a social, emotional and spiritual journey. In the poem, an older generation has managed to free themselves from religious repression that dictates their ideas and prevents them from having the freedom to make their decisions. A younger generation has taken that to the next level. They use their freedom from religion to promote a promiscuous lifestyle of "fucking" and "taking pills" or "wearing a diaphragm." However, there's another journey carrying over from prior generations: the pursuit for wholeness to fill a void and give their life meaning. While past generations thought it was possible to feel whole once they were given the opportunity to be free from religious restraints and make decisions for themselves, the younger generation takes advantage of this freedom by having sex. It's plausible to say that the younger generation desires something more than sex to fill that void, since the "long slide" they're headed down isn't necessarily a positive experience. However, by tying all these concepts together, emptiness, slang, perceptivity and a journey, Larkin truly encompasses the human desire for something more to make life worth living. He, also, shows that this journey will be a constant process for each generation.