Philip Larkin This Be The Verse

The idea that parents are to blame for our faults and failings is one that does not sit well with many, but in Philip Larkin’s “This Be the Verse,” he goes on to declare just that. From victim to offender, people pass down their faults and wrongdoings from one generation to the next. Human nature will never change, and misery will forever thrive. Not one generation can be blamed for the faults they have, yet each generation passes down their faults and wrongdoings to the next.This means that we can blame our parents and the generations that came before us for our mistakes, but our children will do the same, blaming us for their faults. If this is true, then every human being goes from being the victim to the offender. I can blame my parents for my faults, but they have the same excuse as I do. “They were fucked up in their …show more content…
Whether it be hatred, racism, spite, anger, rage, misery deprives us of happiness, and “it deepens like a coastal shelf” (10), getting worse as it is passed on from one generation to the next. Can we escape this by breaking ties with our parents? Everyone would still have their own faults and failings, but perhaps far fewer than if their parents filled them up with the faults they had. It may be why Larkin goes on to say “Get out as early as you can” (11). The cycle may never be broken, but it might be possible for individuals to break free from it. But even then, misery would live on. People create their own misery and have their own faults and failings, which is why Larkin ends his poem advising the reader to not have any kids themselves. This is vital, for having kids would mean that a persons faults would now be passed onto the next generation, thereby re-entering the cycle. If having no children is the solution to truly ending the cycle, then humanity will not exist either, making it a war that can never be