The_Be_the_Verse

‘This be the verse’ Analysis. ‘This be the verse’ is a poem that focuses on the somewhat controversial idea that parenthood is an inherently flawed concept. Phillip Larkin opens with ‘They fuck you up, your Mum and Dad’, which immediately sets the tone for the rest of the poem; bitter, miserable, and most importantly, a warning. ‘Fuck you’ is typical of Larkin. He was famed for his use of ‘working class’ language in order to appeal to an audience that often consider poetry pretentious. The second line ‘They may not mean to, but they do’ reiterates Larkin’s resolve, but at the same time negates some blame away from parents; it’s not their fault, they can’t help it. ‘They fill you with the faults they had’ is the third line, and makes it clear the issue Larkin has with parents. The line ‘And add some extra just for you’ adds to the idea that parents are naturally flawed, by implying that they develop flaws that the child will inherit as well. Stanza two develops the point of the child being ‘fucked’ not being all due to the parent. Larkin focuses on the parents experiences of childhood and youth. ‘But they were fucked up in their turn’ allows the reads to have some sympathy with the parents, and the use of ‘turn’ suggests that when this turn is over, another will begin, and this will keep on happening. ‘By fools in old-style hats and coats’ refers to grandparents of the reader. ‘old style hats and coats’ are very traditional items of clothing, and may be trying to get across how traditional (implying perhaps physical) the grandparents parenting style may have been. The third line ‘who half the time were soppy-stern‘ means either that parents are over protective, or that they flit back from one to the other too frequently, probably based solely on their mood. Line four of this stanza, ’And half at one another’s throats’, tells us what parents do when they’re not being soppy stern. Lines 3 and 4 give the reader the idea that parents are always doing something to damage their child. The final stanza really tries to amplify the concept of this ‘passing down of faults’ being a continuous thing. ‘Man hands on misery to man’ in Larkin’s way of saying that its inescapable; regardless of who you are, you are ‘man’, and misery will be passed down to you. The repetition of the ‘m’ sound in this sentence really gets across how drawn this process is. ‘It deepens like a coastal shelf’ is a powerful metaphor that shows how each generation the misery gets worse. Coastal shelf are under water be default, and to keep deepening regardless helps the reader visualise just how bad it can get. The last two lines ‘Get out as early as you can, And don’t have any kids yourself’ Is Larkin’s way of telling the reader to not have children. If the bloodline is severed, then there can be no more misery to hand down. It really opens the reader’s eyes to what Larkin thinks of humans. Is this misery that past generations have handed down to us really so bad that it’s simply not worth maintaining the human race'