'Larkin is often thought of as a gloomy poet, describing life and the world around him in a drab and depressing manner.' Explore this idea in light of your reading of 'This Be the Verse'.

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29/08/2004

‘Larkin is often thought of as a gloomy poet, describing life and the world around him in a drab and depressing manner.’ Explore this idea in light of your reading of ‘This Be the Verse’.

Larkin’s ‘This Be the Verse’ delivers a damning message to its reader that could be said to be typical of the man Larkin was. The poem describes how parents have passed on all their faults and bad habits to their children for centuries. The poem’s crude meaning is characteristic of much of Larkin’s other work, for example ‘High Windows’.

        

Larkin makes no attempt within the poem to conceal the message he is giving to the reader. The message is clear and blunt; the poem certainly contains no hidden meaning. He is basically saying that generations of parents have continued to pass on all the wrong things to the children. The opening line reads: “They fuck you up, your mum and dad.” When you consider that the majority of us look upon our parents as the people who carve our characters, bring us up and support us the first line is quite damning of all mothers and fathers and when put into context is probably a revelation to many of us readers.

When you relate the message of the poem though to Larkin’s own unique childhood, you can begin to try to understand the venom of the poem’s tone and meaning. Larkin, brought up in a secure, middle class family background found his childhood quite intimidating. His father was very masculine and showed some support for Hitler’s Nazi party. He once took Larkin to Nazi Germany for a summer holiday. It is quite likely that some of the resentment Larkin felt for his own childhood has transferred into his poems as a broader, all-round message for all.

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The poem’s title has religious connotations and suggests that the poem is a defined teaching within life. Out of all verses within Bibles, songs, hymns etc. the “This Be the” part of the title advocates that this is the most important verse and adds extra significance to the poem’s substance.

The poem has three stanzas made up of four lines each and has an ABAB rhyming scheme. In my opinion it is the sheer simplicity of the poem that adds most effect and clarity to the poem’s meaning. The language is simple and the meaning is clear, even the ...

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