“They would not guess how early in/Their supine stationary voyage/The air would change to soundless damage”
Despite remaining in the same place for centuries, the couple (in effigy form) have traveled extensively over time. They likely dreamed of their effigy preserving their memory forever, but even “early in” this journey, the weather began to erode their effigy. The phrase “soundless damage” underscores both how unexpected it was and how little the damage mattered to others, who quickly grew indifferent towards the once-famous noble couple.
“How soon succeeding eyes begin/To look, not read.”
Most literally, these lines refer to the changes from a time when most educated people could read Latin to now, when knowledge of the language is far less common. Unable to read the language, visitors could soon only look at the couple’s names. Yet these lines also suggest that visitors became disinterested in reading the names, no longer curious about their identities despite their earlier fame, but instead only interested in the symbol of love their joined hands represent.
“What will survive of us is love”
Critics and writers have interpreted this line, one of Larkin’s most famous, in a variety of ways. First, the “we” in the line may be simply the couple, or it could be a more general statement about “we” humans as a whole. Furthermore, the line is often taken out of context to serve as a platitude about love lasting past death, but in context, it’s less cheerful. After all, the poem suggests that the couple didn’t intend to symbolize their love by holding hands, so the fact that it’s now taken as a symbol of eternal love is accidental. We might want to believe that love survives forever, but the speaker can’t be sure of that.
