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“This Be The Verse” Introduction
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The British poet Philip Larkin published "This Be The Verse" in 1971. The poem is about the way that parents pass their flaws and emotional complications on to their children, who in turn pass their own misery on to their children. The only way to stop this cycle, the speaker suggests in a somewhat tongue-in-cheek tone, is to "get out" of life without having kids. Written in iambic tetrameter with a strict ABAB rhyme scheme, the poem borrows its title from Robert Louis Stevenson's poem "Requiem," which celebrates the idea of finding happiness and peace in death. For the speaker of "This Be The Verse," though, death is merely a way to avoid inevitable family tensions.
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“This Be The Verse” Summary
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Your parents inflict profound emotional damage on you. Even if they aren't trying to harm you, this is inevitably what they do. This is because your parents pass their personal flaws on to you, and they'll even behave in ways that force you to develop flaws of your very own.
However, parents only do this to their children because they were emotionally damaged when they themselves were kids by their own foolish, old-fashioned parents, who spent half their time being unreasonably strict and the other half viciously arguing with one another.
People pass their sadness and suffering on to each other, and this discontent gradually sinks into people in the same way that the earth slopes into the ocean. The only way to avoid this fate is to die as soon as possible and to make sure you don't have any children of your own.
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“This Be The Verse” Themes
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Parenting and Emotional Damage
“This Be The Verse” suggests that all parents inevitably cause their children lasting emotional damage. This, the speaker suggests, is unavoidable. After all, even parents who don’t intend to harm their children end up passing their character flaws to them while also forcing their children to develop new flaws. Seeing this process as a never-ending cycle, the speaker suggests that parents tend to “fuck up” their children precisely because their parents did the same thing to them. In this regard, the poem frames emotional damage as cyclical and generational, something that people can’t help but inherit from their parents and then unwittingly inflict upon their own children.
One of the most important sentiments in the poem is the idea that parents “may not mean to” saddle their kids with their emotional baggage—even if this is exactly what they end up doing. This implies that even the most well-intentioned parents can’t help but perpetuate tense dynamics that ultimately interfere with their children’s lives. By unintentionally forcing their flaws onto their children, the speaker maintains, all parents inflict emotional damage on their kids, regardless of their best efforts to avoid this.
The idea that everyone inflicts emotional damage on their children suggests that this is a cyclical problem. To that end, the speaker notes that parents themselves have been “fucked up” by their parents and that the only way to break out of this endless sequence of emotional damage is to die without having children, thereby making it impossible to pass emotional baggage on to a new generation of family members.
Needless to say, this is a very pessimistic outlook, since it suggests that there is no reasonable solution to this problem. However, it’s worth noting that the poem isn’t just a bitter complaint about how parents negatively impact their children’s lives. Rather, the poem is also an acknowledgment that everyone inevitably inherits flaws from their parents. And for this reason, it’s perfectly normal for people to feel like their parents messed them up—this, after all, is simply part of growing up and experiencing the kind of imperfection that is central to being a human being.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-12
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Misery and Suffering
One message that can be drawn from the poem is that misery and suffering are inescapable. This, the speaker upholds, is because misery itself can be passed from one person to the next, which is why children are so profoundly affected by their parents. Of course, this idea sounds quite depressing, but it’s worth keeping in mind that “This Be The Verse” has a surprisingly lighthearted tone. To that end, the speaker’s solution to the never-ending problem of human misery is that people should “get out” of life (which is to say die) before having children—a suggestion so ridiculous that it reads as sarcastic, since few people would take this advice seriously. In turn, the poem suggests that there is virtually nothing a person can do to prevent unhappiness.
According to the speaker, to be alive is to be miserable. This, of course, is because parents pass on their discontent to their children, and this discontent “deepens like a coastal shelf” as time goes on and generation after generation inherits such misery. It is for this reason, then, that the speaker says, “Get out as early as you can, / And don’t have any kids yourself.” In other words, the only way that humans could ever escape their own misery is if humankind ceased to exist at all—indeed, people can’t be unhappy if they dead.
And yet, this supposed solution is so absurd that it comes to seem like little more than a tongue-in-cheek joke. After all, suggesting that somebody die in order to avoid unhappiness is like telling someone to jump into a fire because they’re cold: the solution technically solves the original problem but also creates a much bigger one!
With this dynamic in mind, it becomes clear that the speaker doesn’t truly know how to avoid misery because there isn’t a way to do this. By suggesting such a ludicrous way of putting an end to this kind of happiness, then, the speaker subtly demonstrates that humans have no choice but to accept suffering as a basic fact of existence.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 9-12
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “This Be The Verse”
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Lines 1-2
They fuck you ...
... but they do.The poem has a very informal tone from the start, when the speaker insists that parents will "fuck you up." In contrast with the antiquated, rather lofty title ("This Be The Verse"), the informality and bluntness of the first line is striking, perhaps catching readers off-guard and encouraging them to connect with what the speaker says on a more immediate, personal level. After all, the speaker is concerned with what the poem presents as a universal problem—namely, that parents always end up causing their kids some kind of emotional harm.
If the poem's opening line seems harsh, it's worth noting that the speaker softens this initial statement by saying, in the second line, that many parents "may not mean to" cause their children harm. In doing so, the speaker makes it clear that this poem is not supposed to be read as an attack on bad parents. Rather, the poem simply sets forth the idea that all parents unavoidably complicate their children's lives, regardless of their intentions. In this way, the speaker highlights the cyclical nature of this kind of unhappiness, ultimately suggesting that it's difficult, if not impossible, to escape childhood without having experienced some form of emotional damage inflicted by one's parents.
This idea sounds quite pessimistic, and that's because it is pessimistic. At the same time, though, it might be helpful to bear in mind that the speaker's use of profanity in the opening line undercuts the seriousness of this otherwise grand assertion. After all, most people would probably give a little knowing chuckle after hearing the phrase, "They fuck you up, your mum and dad." Accordingly, the poem takes on a certain dry humor, even as the speaker makes such bleak claims. In this tongue-in-cheek manner, the speaker uses anaphora to repeat the word "they" at the beginning of the first two lines. In doing so, the speaker highlights the human tendency to constantly blame others for everything that has gone wrong in one's life. Indeed, parents are especially vulnerable to this kind of criticism, since so many people feel the same way the speaker does, believing that their parents have "fucked" them up.
Both lines 1 and 2 feature caesuras, which establish a distinct rhythm that is self-contained and terse. This is further accentuated by the fact that both lines are end-stopped, adding prominent pauses that, when combined with the meter of the poem, create a very musical effect.
To that end, these first two lines establish the poem's meter, since they are both in iambic tetrameter. This means that each line consists of four iambs, which are metrical feet consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (da-DUM). The lines scan like this:
They fuck | you up, || your mum | and dad.
They may | not mean | to, || but | they do.The iambic rhythm in these lines gives the words a bouncy feel, one that is also created by the assonant sounds that pattern themselves throughout. For instance, the /uh/ sound repeats three times in the first line, appearing in the words "fuck," "up," and "mum." Similarly, the long /a/ sound repeats in the second line, appearing in the word "they" (which occurs twice) and the word "may."
All in all, this creates a satisfying sound that, when combined with the meter and pacing of the poem (in addition to the internal rhyme between "to" and "do" in the second line) ultimately gives the poem a sing-song quality. In this regard, the beginning of the poem sounds surprisingly cheerful despite the speaker's pessimistic outlook, thereby inviting readers to laugh at the sad notion that all parents mess up their children.
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Lines 3-4
They fill you ...
... just for you.
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Lines 5-6
But they were ...
... hats and coats, -
Lines 7-8
Who half the ...
... one another’s throats. -
Lines 9-10
Man hands on ...
... a coastal shelf. -
Lines 11-12
Get out as ...
... any kids yourself.
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“This Be The Verse” Symbols
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The Coastal Shelf
The reference to coastal shelves in the poem introduces the image of a very old and largely unseen geographical feature that slopes down into the depths of the ocean. This image is particularly relevant to the poem's acknowledgment that human misery works its way from generation to generation—after all, a coastal shelf is something that has been in existence for a long time, thereby embodying the same kind of persistence and longevity that suffering and discontent also have.
What's more, coastal shelves stretch deeper and deeper into the ocean the farther they are from land. This depth, it seems, represents the ways in which unhappiness is deeply ingrained in life itself. With this in mind, the speaker mentions coastal shelves to symbolize the fact that sadness is a fundamental feature of existence—a feature that has always been part of the human condition.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Line 10: “coastal shelf”
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“This Be The Verse” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Anaphora
The speaker's use of anaphora is subtle, since the words that repeat at the beginning of consecutive lines aren't particularly noticeable. For example, the speaker begins each of the first three lines ("They fuck you up ... they had") with the word "they," a word that more or less blends into the rest of the poem.
At the same time, this repetition creates a feeling of consistency that makes the speaker sound unwavering and predictable. In this way, the anaphora adds to the dry, cynical tone that the speaker uses, ultimately creating a matter-of-fact overall sound that reflects the speaker's pessimistic outlook. It's inevitable that parents will mess up their children's lives, the speaker thinks, and repeating "they" again and again draws attention to this inevitability. It also keeps the poem's resentment focused squarely on parents, at least for now.
The speaker also uses anaphora in the second stanza ("But they ... another's throats"), repeating the word "half" at the beginning of the two consecutive clauses that take up lines 7 and 8:
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another's throats.This is a very straightforward example of anaphora, since the poetic device reflects the content of the line; it divides the parents' actions into two parts.
Where anaphora appears in the poem:- Line 1: “They”
- Line 2: “They”
- Line 3: “They”
- Line 7: “Who half”
- Line 8: “And half ”
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Assonance
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Alliteration
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Caesura
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Consonance
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End-Stopped Line
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Epanalepsis
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Simile
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“This Be The Verse” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Faults
- Soppy-Stern
- Misery
- Coastal Shelf
Faults-
(Location in poem: Line 3: “faults”)
Flaws. The speaker means that parents pass their worst traits to their children.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “This Be The Verse”
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Form
The 12 lines of "This Be The Verse" are broken up into three quatrains, meaning they each have four lines. Although the poem closely follows an ABAB rhyme scheme and is written in iambic tetrameter (meaning that each line contains four iambs, or four da-DUMS), it is not associated with any specific poetic form. Nevertheless, the poem is neatly organized, never straying from its tight stanza formation or its rhythmic qualities. In this way, the unwavering form reflects the predictable cycle of misery that passes from one generation to the next.
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Meter
"This Be The Verse" is written in iambic tetrameter. This means that each line contains four iambs, which are metrical feet consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (da-DUM). On the whole, the poem adheres very closely to this rhythmic pattern, as is made clear by the fact that the entire first stanza is written in perfect iambic tetrameter:
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 ex- | tra, || just | for you.The speaker's strict adherence to this iambic rhythm creates a bouncy sound that is very musical, especially when combined with the poem's steady ABAB rhyme scheme. The meter also enables the speaker to place extra emphasis on certain important words. This is especially apparent in the fourth line ("And add some extra, just for you"), when the caesura that appears in the third foot ("-tra || just") accentuates the stress that falls on the word "just," thereby emphasizing the notion that children develop their own unique emotional baggage in response to their parents' behavior. In this way, the speaker's use of meter adds musicality to the poem while also calling attention to important words.
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Rhyme Scheme
"This Be The Verse" adheres closely to the following rhyme scheme in each of its three quatrains:
ABAB
This rhyme scheme creates a somewhat predictable sound, giving the poem a tight-knit feeling of consistency and musicality. This is important, considering that the poem otherwise advances such a cynical and bleak outlook on life and familial relationships. By sticking closely to an ABAB rhyme scheme, then, the speaker manages to keep the tone of the poem remarkably light even though the subject is rather dispiriting. In fact, it is this ability to keep the tone light that suggests the speaker is used to having these cynical thoughts, which are so ordinary that they no longer seem particularly upsetting.
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“This Be The Verse” Speaker
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There is no identifying information about the poem's speaker, making it difficult to determine who, exactly, delivers these lines. Keeping the speaker anonymous—with no name, age, nor gender given—allows the poem to feel universal in its message. It's not just this speaker's parents who messed up, in other words, but all parents.
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“This Be The Verse” Setting
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"This Be The Verse" isn't set in any specific time or place, since it's a poem about a problem that, in the speaker's opinion, is both timeless and universal: the fact that children are inevitably affected by their parents' emotional baggage. Because the speaker of the poem frames this as central to the human condition, then, it's difficult to attach it to a specific setting.
However, the speaker does mention the "old-style hats and coats" that the older generation of parents used to wear, possibly referencing a time in the early to mid-1900s when it was common for people to wear hats on a regular basis. And yet, even this detail isn't quite specific enough to clarify the setting of the poem, since the term "old-style" doesn't actually reference an actual time period. As a result, readers are left to view the poem as a broad meditation on the nature of humanity that ultimately transcends time and place.
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Literary and Historical Context of “This Be The Verse”
Literary Context
Philip Larkin is often associated with other poets who were, along with Larkin himself, part of The Movement in the 1950s, a group that included people like Ted Hughes, Kingsley Amis, Donald Davie, Thom Gunn, and Elizabeth Jennings, among others. Although it is somewhat difficult to articulate what, exactly, The Movement's defining principles were, it's safe to say that it was a particularly British literary ensemble, since all of its poets were English and were interested in advancing the ideals of British poetry. To that end, The Movement signaled a shift away from Modernism, as poets like Larkin gravitated toward using meter and form to write about quintessentially British matters.
Of course, "This Be The Verse" was written and published in 1971, long after The Movement faded from prominence. This, however, only calls attention to the poem's adherence to meter and form, since the landscape of poetry in the 1970s was – at least in some schools of poetry – quite experimental. Many postmodern poets were no longer interested in writing metered verse, nor was rhyming poetry particularly popular at the time. Larkin, however, remained focused on his rather formal style, using both meter and rhyme while also striking a particularly cynical tone in "This Be The Verse" – a tone he assumed in many of his most famous poems.
Indeed, Larkin was often considered a rather bleak, pessimistic poet, a dynamic that is evident in poems like "An Arundel Tomb" and "The Whitsun Weddings." And though it's hard to pinpoint what, exactly, it would mean for someone to have a quintessentially British affect, it's certainly the case that dry, cynical humor is central to the stereotypical English disposition. In this regard, the tongue-in-cheek pessimism in "This Be The Verse" aligns with The Movement's general approach, despite the fact that Larkin wrote it long after the group's inception.
Historical Context
"This Be The Verse" is a poem about the universal and timeless ways in which parents pass on their discontent to their children. As such, many readers point out that Philip Larkin himself never married or had kids. Homeschooled until the age of eight, Larkin didn't have a particularly close relationship with his parents either, though they did support him in his various endeavors.
As for the time period in which the poem was published, the 1970s saw quite a bit of change, as counter culture movements rose to prominence and spread messages about the importance of equality, love, peace, and artistic freedom. In this regard, "This Be The Verse" was published during a time of cultural upheaval, as young people challenged powerful institutions and other figures of authority—including, of course, their own parents. In this way, the speaker's cynical thoughts about how parents "fuck up" their children align with the time period's general attitude toward older generations.
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More “This Be The Verse” Resources
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External Resources
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Zoe Wanamaker Reads the Poem — Watch the British actor Zoe Wanamaker read "This Be The Verse" aloud.
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Larkin's Life — For more information about Philip Larkin, take a look at this brief overview of his life and work.
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The Poet's Voice — Listen to Philip Larkin himself read "This Be The Verse."
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The Paris Review Interview — Check out Philip Larkin's interview with The Paris Review, which was published in 1982 as part of the magazine's "The Art of Poetry" series.
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Portrait of the Artist — Take a look at the six portraits of Philip Larkin that exist in the National Portrait Gallery's online archive.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Philip Larkin
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