Links - Reference Back, Ambulances, Wild Oats.
persona is observing the people and faith healer in the first two stanzas, the third is more judgemental.
Stanza 1: about the faith healer - describing in detail - 'Dark suit, white collar' - looks like a priest or vicar, people more inclined to trust and believe in him.
shows the reality of the faith healer - he's not really caring - 'deep american voice demands and, scarcely pausing' - he's not really listening he's just trying to see as many people as possible to get more money - he's: persuasive, fake, unfeeling, powerful, aggressive, arrogant and cold.
'Directing god' - shows he's arrogant, thinks he can tell god what to do, thinks he can play god.
Stanza 2: describes the women - 'sheepishly stray' - they are easily lead, and quick to believe.
'a kind of dumb and idiot child within them still survives' - they are naive, gullible and vulnerable, they seem to be people who have been rejected by society - Larkin empathises. these women put all their loneliness and insecurity onto the faith healer, hoping that they will be cured - but you cannot be cured from loneliness.
Stanza 3:philosophical - Larkin is judging the faith healer and the people that believe in him.
'By now all is wrong' - showing that before they only had one problem and now that they've seen the faith healer everything is wrong.
this poem reveals the faith healer to be a fake, emphasising the fact that Larkin is an atheist and doesn't believe.
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