Reaction to Water

In the poem you could infer that the persona feels that religion is no longer purely spiritual as it is too strictly controlled - 'A furious devout drench' could infer that the persona feels religion itself needs to be cleansed with water to purify it again. Larkin uses the word 'construct' in the first stanza to suggest he feels that religion is a man made conception and not something spiritual. The word 'fording' in stanza 2 could suggest that the persona feels that religion is a shallow crossing to the answers that we all desire, manly about death. It could be that Larkin is inferring that he thinks religion is just a form of escapism, and that it teaches people not to fear death, even if what it's saying is not necessarily known to be true. However, it sounds like Larkin accepts that some people do trust what religion says even if he does not.