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jtuck004

(15,882 posts)
Tue Dec 15, 2015, 07:31 PM Dec 2015

"This Be The Verse" They fuck you up, your mum and dad....


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 extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another's throats.

Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don't have any kids yourself.

http://allpoetry.com/This-Be-The-Verse

Or, one could pretend it didn't happen...
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"This Be The Verse" They fuck you up, your mum and dad.... (Original Post) jtuck004 Dec 2015 OP
Aaah, Philip Larkin. My spouse often recites that first verse Cal Carpenter Dec 2015 #1
Lol. Us too. n/t jtuck004 Dec 2015 #2
This is so true Kalidurga Dec 2015 #3

Cal Carpenter

(4,959 posts)
1. Aaah, Philip Larkin. My spouse often recites that first verse
Tue Dec 15, 2015, 07:37 PM
Dec 2015

True, funny, sad and awesome all at the same time.

(btw, we are child-free, LOL)

Kalidurga

(14,177 posts)
3. This is so true
Tue Dec 15, 2015, 07:54 PM
Dec 2015

One of his best

This is my favorite, but I don't think it's his best

Church Going

Once I am sure there's nothing going on
I step inside, letting the door thud shut.
Another church: matting, seats, and stone,
And little books; sprawlings of flowers, cut
For Sunday, brownish now; some brass and stuff
Up at the holy end; the small neat organ;
And a tense, musty, unignorable silence,
Brewed God knows how long. Hatless, I take off
My cycle-clips in awkward reverence,

Move forward, run my hand around the font.
From where I stand, the roof looks almost new-
Cleaned or restored? Someone would know: I don't.
Mounting the lectern, I peruse a few
Hectoring large-scale verses, and pronounce
"Here endeth" much more loudly than I'd meant.
The echoes snigger briefly. Back at the door
I sign the book, donate an Irish sixpence,
Reflect the place was not worth stopping for.

Yet stop I did: in fact I often do,

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