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"This Be The Verse" is a lyric poem in three stanzas with an alternating rhyme scheme, by the English poet Philip Larkin (1922–1985). It was written around April 1971, was first published in the August 1971 issue of New Humanist, and appeared in the 1974 collection High Windows.
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It is one of Larkin's best-known poems; the opening lines ("They fuck you up, your mum and dad") are among his most frequently quoted. Larkin himself compared it with W. B. Yeats's "Lake Isle of Innisfree" and said he expected to hear it recited in his honour by a thousand Girl Guides before he died. It is frequently parodied. Television viewers in the United Kingdom voted it one of the "Nation's Top 100 Poems".[1]
The poem consists of three stanzas of four iambic tetrameter feet on an alternating rhyme scheme. The speaker, addressing the reader directly, expresses the idea that parents put a lot of emotional weight on their children with the famous line, "They fuck you up, your mum and dad".[2] The speaker goes on to explain that it may not be intentional, but stems from their own emotional baggage (with "some extra, just for you").[2] In the second stanza, the speaker describes the way that the reader's parents were also given this emotional trauma by their parents. The third stanza is where the poem makes its assertion: the misery humanity experiences is a cycle that expands continuously. The speaker concludes with some advice: "Get out as early as you can... And don’t have any kids yourself".
The title of the poem is an allusion to Robert Louis Stevenson's "Requiem" ("This be the verse you grave for me").[3] Stevenson's thought of a happy homecoming in death is given an ironic turn. He often thought of dying in a ditch, but ended up dying peacefully in his home at the age of 44. Being a "[g]othic writer", Stevenson wrote a lot of grim stories. His most famous is The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.[4]
A testament to the enduring appeal of Larkin's poem came in April 2009, when the first four lines were recited by a British appeal court judge as part of his judgement of a particularly acrimonious divorce case involving the future custody arrangements of a nine-year-old child. Lord Justice Wall referred to the emotional damage caused to the child, saying: "These four lines seem to me to give a clear warning to parents who, post-separation, continue to fight the battles of the past, and show each other no respect."[5]
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Literature
Poet Adrian Mitchell wrote an upbeat parody of the poem that begins with the lines "They tuck you up, your Mum and Dad, / They read you Peter Rabbit, too."[6]
The poem is extensively featured on Oliver James' books They F*** You Up (2002)[7] and How Not To F*** Them Up (2010).[8]
Music
Anne Clark set the poem to music and performed it on her albums Hopeless Cases (1987) and R.S.V.P. (1988).
The poem was set to music by Matthew Bannister for the album Hard Love Stories (1988) by New Zealand band Sneaky Feelings.
In a 2002 interview on Parkinson, David Bowie quoted the first and last stanzas, when asked about his relationship with his parents.[9]
Television
Comedian Raphael Bob-Waksberg has cited the poem as an influence on his animated series BoJack Horseman (2014–2020).[10]
The entire poem is recited in the Ted Lasso episode "Mom City" (2023). The first stanza is quoted in numerous TV series, including the Weeds episode "Dearborn-Again" (2010), the Criminal Minds episode "The Inspired" (2013), the Succession episode "Austerlitz" (2018), and Firefly Lane episode "Reborn on the Fourth of July" (2022).[11]
Film
The poem is recited by James McAvoy's character in 2024's suspense thriller Speak No Evil.[12]
Other
The streetwear brand Supreme printed the first stanza of the poem on items in their Fall/Winter 2016 collection.[13]
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