This Be The Verse By Philip Larkin
This Be the Verse by Philip Larkin
They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had And add some extra, just for you.
But they were fucked up in their turn By fools in old-style hats and coats, Who half the time were sloppy-stern And half at one another's throats.
Man hands on misery to man. It deepens like a coastal shelf. Get out as early as you can, And don't have any kids yourself.
Lately, I have read a good deal of poems by Philip Larkin, and one unifying factor that I have noticed is that Larkin never seems to use a filler. Every word in every one of his poems seems to be carefully crafted and …show more content…
This allows Larkin to establish a closeness with his readers, now that they know that he is writing for them. This also implies to the reader that Larkin is one of them, that he knows the reader well, because he is in the same social class. To sum it up, by using a word considered to be socially incorrect, Larkin has managed to establish more credibility with the reader, which inherently forces the reader listen up, and pay attention to what Larkin has to …show more content…
Instead, he shifts the blame to your grandparents. However, if this poem were read by your parents, then the blame would be shifted back another generation. And so on, until it is clear that the corruption of children has been going on for ever, back to the first humans. On the other hand, should this poem be read by your children, then it would once again be your parents fault. And so on, into infinity, it is everyone's fault, for somewhere there will be someone to blame their faults on you. The last two lines of the second stanza describe how the readers grandparents (or whomever the blame is being shifted on) went about "fucking you up." However, the description that Larkin uses is a very typical description of what is considered a modern household, again implying that nothing is anyone's fault, but that we are all contributing to "fucking up" of the world. The third stanza presents the problem in it's simplest form, and then provides the solution to the problem. The problem is stated on the first line, and the second line emphasizes the fact that this is a growing problem that seemingly can't be stopped. The last two lines of the poem then provide the solution: to stop reproducing. This is where Larkin says to the world that there is no way out of this problem. That the human race will either have to cease to exist, or simply live with all of it's
They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had And add some extra, just for you.
But they were fucked up in their turn By fools in old-style hats and coats, Who half the time were sloppy-stern And half at one another's throats.
Man hands on misery to man. It deepens like a coastal shelf. Get out as early as you can, And don't have any kids yourself.
Lately, I have read a good deal of poems by Philip Larkin, and one unifying factor that I have noticed is that Larkin never seems to use a filler. Every word in every one of his poems seems to be carefully crafted and …show more content…
This allows Larkin to establish a closeness with his readers, now that they know that he is writing for them. This also implies to the reader that Larkin is one of them, that he knows the reader well, because he is in the same social class. To sum it up, by using a word considered to be socially incorrect, Larkin has managed to establish more credibility with the reader, which inherently forces the reader listen up, and pay attention to what Larkin has to …show more content…
Instead, he shifts the blame to your grandparents. However, if this poem were read by your parents, then the blame would be shifted back another generation. And so on, until it is clear that the corruption of children has been going on for ever, back to the first humans. On the other hand, should this poem be read by your children, then it would once again be your parents fault. And so on, into infinity, it is everyone's fault, for somewhere there will be someone to blame their faults on you. The last two lines of the second stanza describe how the readers grandparents (or whomever the blame is being shifted on) went about "fucking you up." However, the description that Larkin uses is a very typical description of what is considered a modern household, again implying that nothing is anyone's fault, but that we are all contributing to "fucking up" of the world. The third stanza presents the problem in it's simplest form, and then provides the solution to the problem. The problem is stated on the first line, and the second line emphasizes the fact that this is a growing problem that seemingly can't be stopped. The last two lines of the poem then provide the solution: to stop reproducing. This is where Larkin says to the world that there is no way out of this problem. That the human race will either have to cease to exist, or simply live with all of it's