The main theme of the poem This be the Verse by Philip Larkin is the negative influence parents have on their children. In a short three stanzas, Larkin has only negative things to say about parents and how their children will turn out because of them. Larkin in a way that suggests that children have no choice in how they want to turn out. He also suggests that parents have no way in changing how they parent; they will parent the way their parents did to in turn mess up their children the way their parents messed them up. He finishes the poem by writing “Get out as early as you can, And don’t have any kids yourself.” This suggests that the only way to stop the cycle is to not have children.
The first stanza begins the poem by making a very clear and aggressive statement, “They fuck you up, your mom and dad.” This statement alone, sets the tone for the rest of the poem. It is not asking a question, instead it is a very clear point and has no room for discussion. As the stanza goes on, Larkin makes the very clear point that parents may try to give us a good life, but they cannot. They will pass down all their bad qualities, “And add some extra, just for you.” Just the first stanza alone, take all the blame off the reader. It states that you are not responsible for the way you turn out. Your parents are all at fault, and their parents are at fault for them, and so on.
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Larkin starts the second stanza by writing “But they were fucked up in their turn”. Suggesting that parents were doomed from the start because their parents messed them up. His word choice “soppy-stern” combines two adjectives to give you an image of strict, demanding obedience and self-indulgently sentimental. These words contradict each other and are used to show that in that era their parents thought their children were innocent as well as constantly needing to be tamed through