Analyse af This Be The Verse

Philip Larkin - This Be The Verse

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.

Sådan som jeg læser digtet-jeg har selvfølgelig ikke lavet en hel analyse, men skrevet lidt tanker ned, som kan lede dig ud i et spor. 

His opinion is that children commit the same mistakes as their parents have. The parents had miserable childhoods, which they pass on to their children. The parents are guilty of making a horrible childhood for their children, but at the same time they are victims because they can't help that their had bad childhood. The solution is to be found in the last sentence. Don't have kids yourself because then the legacy will stop. At the same time, Larkin points out that parents generally aren't intending to harm their children. 

Larkin wants people to stop having children if their are not willing to change their lifestyle into one that goes hand in hand with being a parent. For instance, children in the 70's were left to themselves because the parents had other priorities. Those children were having a problematic time.

Larkin is talking directly to a person. He uses second person-narrative. The story is told through you. He tries to convince us that our parents have been failing us. They refers to the your parents, and you refers to you as the child. 

The language is relatively easy to understand. No difficults words appear in the text

eye rhymes is used. It looks like dad and had, do and you, turn and stern, coats and throaths, man and can, shelf and yourself are rhyming. In fact, all these words are pronounced differently.