A Short Analysis of Philip Larkin’s ‘This Be The Verse’

Interesting Literature

A summary of a classic Larkin poem

Readers not fond of swearing in poetry are advised to look away now, for Philip Larkin’s opening lines can get pretty sweary. ‘They fuck you up, your mum and dad’: a memorable opening line for one of Philip Larkin’s best-known poems, ‘This Be The Verse’, not exactly a laudatory paean to parenthood. But what is Larkin’s poem actually saying, and why did he feel the need to write it? The following analysis attempts some answers to these...