Water
If I were called in To construct a religion I should make use of water. Going to church Would entail a fording To dry, different clothes; My litany would employ Images of sousing, A furious devout drench, And I should raise in the east A glass of water Where any-angled light Would congregate endlessly.
Water - meaning Summary
Purifying Religious Metaphor
Larkin imagines founding a religion built around water as its central symbol and practice. Worship requires crossing to a ritual place and changing into dry clothes; ceremonies emphasize immersion and physical cleansing rather than doctrine. The poem links ordinary, sensual acts — splashing, drenching, raising a glass — with sacred purpose, suggesting a faith rooted in sensory experience, communal ritual, and the refracting, gathering quality of light in water.
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