This Be The Verse

A poem by Philip Larkin, the right wing jazz-loving librarian.

I came across this in a poetry anthology when I was at school. My juvenile sixth-form friends and I thought it was great because it had some rude words in it.


This Be The Verse

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 soppy-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.

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• delbhoye

[ilikethepie91]

very very nice vid, Larkin is an amazing poet, and i'v never heard his voice before, very appropriate

[delbhoye]

Thanks! It's actually me doing the reading, but I think someone else has posted a YT video of Larkin reciting this poem.

[drbogenbroom2000]

Great reading. Great poem. Thanks. I "discovered" the poetry of Philip Larkin about 20 years ago; "Church Going" was the first poem that I read in an Spanish translation: "Ir a la Iglesia" (I'm mexican; excuse my English!), that sounded simply beautiful. Thanks again.

[delbhoye]

Glad you enjoyed it - thanks for stopping by!

[TheHugDrug]

A good poem reccomended to me by none other than my dad LOL.. i enjoyed the reading thanks.

[delbhoye]

Glad you liked it.

[Zythe]

Duh, the whole point of Larkin was he was rejecting the notions of what a poet should do. He was traditonal in form (rejecting the blank verse of Modernism) yet used contemporary in vernacular (rejecting the elitism of Modernism).

[sophiejanebailey]

philip larkin kept it real

[gaspode18]

@BlackMariah69 Yeah, he was one of us. An ordinary human being with the faults and fears of an ordinary human being. Still one of the great poets, though.

[IlRezzonico]

First time I read this poem, I thought it was just a funny joke. But the older I get the more I realise just how true it is.

[Deana3902]

Music is Oscar Peterson's Night Train - i think.

[angelaandkiki]

@ilikethepie91 - Nah - that's not Larkin's voice.

[GriefTourist]

life is pain and we should not bother, right on!

[juliamakhubela]

Get out as early as you can, And don't have any kids yourself.

[Relugus]

@dongnguyen25 He's saying how parents often pass down their problems to their children, and can mess up your life with their psychoses (such as controlling behaviour, overbearing, ignorance, unhelpful, etc). I incline to the view that if your parents have f***ed you up, you should probably not have children. My parents have f***ed my life up and as a result, I don't want to have kids or marry at all.

[Relugus]

@sophiejanebailey I think what he says in the poem is very wise. I think only a certain percentage of human beings are suitable to be parents, yet society pressures and eggs on everyone to have kids even though many people don't really want to raise kids and are not suited to it. Some of us are meant to stay single or not have kids. Parenting aint for everyone, and the sooner the human race understands that, the better.

[bunnyman06]

They fuck you up your kids

And the little shits mean it

[BlackMariah69]

*right-wing, jazz-loving, pornography-loving, whiskey-loving, racist, mysoginist librarian.