The possessions of the Arundel family came into the hands of the Duke of Norfolk by marriage in 1580. Chichester Cathedral holds the tomb of a member of the Arundel family. In the poem “The Arundel Tomb,” the last poem in Larkin’s collection The Whitsun Weddings, Larkin visualizes the monument (in stone) of an earl and a countess in a tomb. Through the description of the same, he elaborates on how hollow human existence is with all its inherent imperfections.

The faces side to side, their faces are blurred to as they are in oblivion to each other. They are also blurred owing to the passage of time due to decay. The term ‘proper habit’ is a technical term in heraldry ascertaining that their dress was in natural hues and not conventional ones.  Their jointed armour and stiffened pleat seem to define them at the moment, when at one point in their lives they defined the same.

Baroque is an artistic style prevalent from the late 16th century to the early 18th century. It is most often defined as “the dominant style of art in Europe between the Mannerist and Rococo eras, a style characterized by dynamic movement, overt emotion and self-confident rhetoric.” Though the form of art is eloquent in itself, it fails, according to the poet in engaging the eye.…