A serious house on serious earth it is,

In whose blent air all our compulsions meet,

Are recognised, and robed as destinies.

And that much can never be obsolete

Since someone will forever be surprising

A hunger in himself to be more serious,

And gravitate with it to this ground,

Which, he once heard, was proper to grow wise in,

If only that so many dead lie around.

Philip Larkin (1922-85), ‘Church Going’, 1955.