Philip Larkin - 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.


Notes:
- The title "This Be The Verse" has almost a biblical element to it suggesting Larkin is delivering a lesson. Initially quite formal tone.

- This formality is completely undermined by the first line "They fuck your up your mum and dad". Not only is the use of an explicitive shocking but the informality of "mum and dad" suggests an implied child reader. The simplistic structure of the poem throughout further suggests this as it resembles a nursery rhyme. Inital reactions to the first line is surprisingly usually laughter which suggests that there is an element of silliness to Larkin's work. Though, as portrayed by the title, his poems are extrinsically serious and depressing he expresses that there may indeed be a distance between him and the self he portrays on the page.

- Larkin provides some irony with his choice of language and words for example, how everything up to "extra" is monosyllabic until "extra" which indeed has an extra syllable. Also he uses the word "half" exactly halfway through the poem.

- The content of the poem is focused around a very misanthropical perspective with misery being handed on from generation to generation "man hands on misery to man" and in particular the second stanza suggests that we are the identity of our parents with each generation worsening, "but they were fucked up in their turn". The use of words such as "fuck" and "fill" throughout the poem provides a literal view of reproduction suggesting that at the point of conception you're already tarnished by the label of human. Larkin does however provide a solution with, "Get out as early as you can" which in the literal sense would prevent conception in the first place.

- The final stanza distorts the tone back to the serious connotation of the title as the language "deepens" so does the content and indeed the poem. The phrase "deepens like a coastal shelf" suggests a slow weathering of the human condition. An image of beauty thats being tarnished by external influence such as the weather or the sea. Furthermore coastal shelves are supposedly a place of fertility.

- The context in which the poem is written is within the 1970's baby boom where, after the 60's everyone had an ideology of changing the world - women having careers as well as families for example. Larkin seems to step in to this ideology and crushes such a dream to individualise one self by stating that as such an ideology grows so does misery.