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Poet: Philip Larkin
Poem: This Be The Verse
Poem of the Day on:
Feb 10 2008
Comment 51 of 51, added on September 30th, 2009 at 5:17 PM.
This poem encapsulates a sense of teenage unrest and disatisfaction which is almost mirrored in a more subtle fashion in the Whitsun Weddings.
While I could spend time from a literary perspective discussing the importance of this poem, Larkin for his part by telling us that this BE the verse is almost daring us to comment upon a universal truth, its a broken down version of what we all feel, presented in a slick syle, displaying the arrogance of youth, almost before we have learned the lessons which time and poems such as an arundel tomb demonstrate. Larkin connects with everyone throught this poem, literary background or not, which is why though cliched it is one of my favourite Larkins. He is one of us.
laura from United Kingdom
Comment 50 of 51, added on June 18th, 2009 at 9:30 AM.
So true, they really do fuck you up. They try to heal their complexes on you and you end up being screwed up and frustrated. Go abroad and study Sara, learn German and be the best student of law, because you dad studied that. But Sara wants to study literature, no no, that is for stupid people, who cares what you think. Now Sara who is 25 wants to live with her boyfriend who is from Pakistan, they want to travel the world and live every drop of life, but her racist parents don't want to hear about it, they want her to have white babies and live a borring life somewhere. And who will take care of them when they are ill, not her Muslim boyfriend, they say who despite their racism respects them. Well Sara decided to tell them to fuck off for once and for all.
sara from Germany
Comment 49 of 51, added on June 15th, 2009 at 7:21 PM.
I think that beginning of the poem is more subtle and rather cheeky. When he refers to parents 'fucking you up', I think he also refers to the end of the age of 'innocence'. In a sense, he is demystifitying the sexual act (we are fucked into being, not brought by the Stork). And, of course, many of our parents didn't mean to have a child, but they did.
Reminds me of 'sex began in 63 a bit too latwe for me'.
Sid from United Kingdom
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This poem encapsulates a sense of teenage unrest and disatisfaction which is almost mirrored in a more subtle fashion in the Whitsun Weddings.
While I could spend time from a literary perspective discussing the importance of this poem, Larkin for his part by telling us that this BE the verse is almost daring us to comment upon a universal truth, its a broken down version of what we all feel, presented in a slick syle, displaying the arrogance of youth, almost before we have learned the lessons which time and poems such as an arundel tomb demonstrate. Larkin connects with everyone throught this poem, literary background or not, which is why though cliched it is one of my favourite Larkins. He is one of us.
laura from United Kingdom