Water By Pablo Neruda Analysis

"What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are". This statement by C.S. Lewis can be applied to the relationship between Phillip Larkin's "Water" and Pablo Neruda's "Water" when analysis is performed upon the perspectives of the mentioned poems. To explain, a candid surface view of the two poems would provide the correct conclusion of the subject matter being similar. However, further observation gives evidence that the opinions, and applications regarding the subject matter of water is alternate in the two works. This comparative analysis seeks to expose the conflict between the free-flowing opportunity based theories of Philip Larkin's "Water" and the balance-driven

The first mention of water comes in the first stanza and is the initial showing of the author's inclination to the belief that flowing with life and the ability to adapt to new situations is the most fruitful route to success. The second stanza begins by clarifying that church would be a critical point of his man-made religion. Larkin goes into detail by stating that the church ceremony would include a symbolic journey or "a fording" over some river or lake or body of water to a safe place signified by the dry and different clothes. This is the first sign that the author's religious prejudices run deep, due to the fact that as an atheist he would create a religion where the church is a place of safety and continuous new growth rather, than a worship service conducted over past thoughts and actions. This is also the first showing of the belief that water and the "fording" or crossing after becoming wet signifies the increase of the nature of flow in oneself while simultaneously the dry special clothes signified life after the new beginning created by the flow. Larkin's third stanza begins with the author stating that his liturgy or worship ceremonial text would mainly be made up of images of baptisms, water submerging and other water-based rituals. He also continues by calling it a furious devout drench, signifying even more that the drinking in the water is the ability to learn how to flow more and be more flowing in life. It is worth notice that the author does not signify that text would be at the center of his liturgy rather than images. This is important because it shows the "non-root" factor of the author's created religion showing that the interpretation and the journey of water is not constricted by a specific set of rules or text to follow, but rather an image of the correct path or process with the results to be taken internally and individually analyzed. In