This Be the Verse by Philip Larkin (read by Larkin)

Philip Larkin reading his own poem 'This Be the Verse'

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[Robert Creasey]

I know it says it is read by Larkin himself but he sounds an awful lot like Bill Nighy.

[mouse geek]

It's definitely Philip Larkin :)

[ukulazy]

Is "they fuck you up" a pun / wordplay meaning conceive?

[mouse geek]

I've never interpreted it like that but who's to say :-)

[ukulazy]

"They may not mean to, but they do"!

And perhaps "Fill you with the faults they had" is the biological process of creating the physical flaws, rather than just the emotional scars haha.

[mouse geek]

You could see it that way. Poems can be read differently. A religious person, which I'm not, could read 'faults' as inherited Sin. That's the beauty of poetry.

[TheNovaDream]

So true. Yet too many people give in to social pressures to have kids, without measuring the consequences.

[Charles Hurhaus]

Yep...by your interpretation, they didn't mean to have you. but they did...

[Charles Hurhaus]

Ah well...that's the end of humanity then. Don't have any kids yourself...all over within fifty years.

Mind you I doubt that Larkin ever got a shag.

[Evfan091]

this is my favorite poem yet

[vonPeterhof]

Out of all the poems (in four different languages!) that I've learned by heart at school, this is the only one that I can still recite in its entirety. I wonder if that's because its message actually struck a chord in me, or just because it's the only one that has the word "fuck" in it ;)

[Virgil Tharpe]

then be glad for your homework

[londonhasgotmeloco]

perfect, i love this poem so much!

[Filipsindberg]

I only got here cause my homework