Faith Healing

Faith Healing looks at ideas about both love and religion, suggesting that love, like faith healing is something that promises to make everything better, but in reality does not. 

Stanza 1:

• 'Slowly the women file' shows a misogynist attitude as women are seen as the stupid people who believe in this. His distance from them also gives him a god like status. 
• 'upright' and 'in rimless' glasses suggests this man sees life through a narrow view, not freely and has something missing in the personas view. 
• 'tirelessly persuade' shows the dedication people have to this cause, linking to the way people are dedicated to love. 'Tirelessly' also suggests they are ceaseless and almost annoying, and 'persuade' being a command shows they can be quite forceful. 
• 'within whose warm spring rain of loving care' is a metaphor suggesting women find comfort in a preachers soft voice, reinforcing them being naive. Also reinforces his god like qualities as he seems immersive. 
• 'dear child' is repeated to mock the stereotype. 
• 'deep american voice' shows stereotypes.
• 'demands' reinforces the forceful nature of these people. 
• 'scarcely pausing' reiterates that they are ceaseless. 
• 'directing god' suggests that the persona feels they are trying to play god. 
• 'abruptly' suggests there is no care in the action, its not a nice thing that is being done to you. reinforced by 'exiled'.

Stanza 2:

• 'they go in silence' suggests they are insignificant, and this gives no evidence that it actually worked. 
• 'sheepishly stray' alliteration gives a whisper like quality suggesting there is something to be kept secret. 
• 'just yet;' suggests they want to cling on to something. 
• 'stiff, twitching' makes them sounds like animals, being derogatory to women and the people that do this as it suggests they are stupid, alternatively could suggests doing this makes them stupid. Reinforced as they are called 'dumb and idiot child' which links to the way god sees them as his children, belittling them, making them stupid-or the part of them that sees themselves as children is stupid.
• 'deep hoarse tears' links to women being seen as emotional. 
• 'still survives' suggests this process is destructive. 
• 'at last calls them home' links to the meaning of life. 
• 'blort' not being a real words, links to larkin believing this process is not real. 
• 'their eyes squeeze grief' objectifies the women, showing he is detached from them. 
• 'unheard answers' suggests the answers are not real.

Stanza 3:

• 'Whats wrong!' repeated forces the reader to ask what is really wrong, which in Larkin's view is 'faith healing'.
• 'moustached in flowered frocks' shows he is a misogynist. 
• 'they shake' may denote religion is something to be feared. 
• 'all's wrong in everyone' could suggests they are beyond the help of religion, or that religion creates the problems in everyone. It also unifies.
• 'life lived according to love' is suggested as a universal measurement, a mistake everyone makes although it is something that seems to heal everything. It also suggests people let love define life. 
• 'it sweeps' connotes the power and control it has. 
• 'That nothing cures' suggests neither love or faith healing can help people. 
• 'rigid landscape weeps' personification shows Larkins bond with nature, more than women, but this idea of the ground weeping is an idea as farcical to him as faith healing and love.