How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #4
And so it stays just on the edge of vision,
A small unfocused blur, a standing chill […]
Most things may never happen: this one will,
And realisation of it rages out
In furnace-fear (31-32, 34-36)
These lines reinforce the inescapability of death. It also reinforces the idea that the knowledge of our own death is unpleasant. It feels bad. Again, the word choice does the work. Consider the following list of words and phrases from lines 31-36:
on the edge
unfocused
blur
chill
rage
fear
What do all these words have in common? Yup. You got it. Negative, negative, negative—each of these words evokes unpleasant feelings. An accident? Shmoop thinks not.
Quote #5
Death is no different whined at then withstood. (40)
The speaker acknowledges a common strategy for how do deal with death. There are those that say we should be brave in the face of death, that we should—as the Brits in Larkin's native England like to say—keep a stiff upper lip. Well, that's all good and well. Larkin knows all about that idea. Here again, he's saying it doesn't matter what you do. Be as brave as you want. You're still going to die. Death treats cowards and heroes the same.
Quote #6
It stands plain as a wardrobe, what we know,
Have always known, know that we can't escape,
Yet can't accept (42-44)
Geez, Phil. We get it. We can't escape death. We know. If it seems like this is the same stuff Phil has been telling us since the beginning of the poem, that's because it is. The fact that we don't really get any answers or make any progress in this poem is mirrored in line 44: we just can't accept that we are going to die and become nothing. We can keep thinking about it and talking about it, but we don't really get anywhere. It just doesn't get any easier to deal with death. Even here at the end of the poem, the speaker is still struggling.