Ignorance

This poem is about belief and life, and how much people understand about the things that they do, and whether this is a good or a bad thing. 

Stanza 1:

• 'to know nothing' demonstrates in Larkin's view of ignorance you have no idea about anything, and this idea of a complete lack of understanding is 'strange' to him.
• repetition of 'strange' reinforces how Larkin feels he needs an answer. 
• 'never to be sure' shows a lack of education stops you from being confident.
• 'Of what is true or right or real' shows how there is more than one answer to things, and it seems even Larkin isnt sure, this lack of a certain answer is reinforced by 'it does seem so' which suggests the uncertainty linked to ignorance. 
• 'someone must know' shows how people look to others for the answers, and they are easily swayed in opinion by them, the human race copies others as part of their nature. 

Stanza 2:

• 'their skill at finding what they need' shows how people may be ignorant but they have the ability to survive, that comes natural to them even though they seem to be 'ignorant to the way things work'. This links to the way more educated people look down on others. 
• 'willingness to change' demonstrates that those less educated are more open than others to different points of view, they dont judge or discriminate which would be 'strange' to those with strong views. 

Stanza 3:

• 'wear such knowledge' suggests educated people just use it to impress, and for some knowledge is a temporary thing. It also suggests humans live for finding answers to questions.  
• 'our flesh surrounds us with it's own opinions' shows the innate instinctive human actions and thoughts are more important than any knowledge, suggesting education is a waste of time as it will only be trumped by survival. 
• 'all our life on imprecision's' suggests nothing is really 'true or right or real', there is always different answers so knowledge has little point. 
• 'when we start to die have no idea why' shows how knowledge is useless, as the most important thing it could be used for, it doesnt help us with, ignorance is more healthy as we can never we educated enough to understand life and death so there is no point trying.