{"id":9365,"date":"2023-05-18T20:25:08","date_gmt":"2023-05-18T19:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=9365"},"modified":"2023-05-18T20:32:19","modified_gmt":"2023-05-18T19:32:19","slug":"poetry-family-larkins-this-be-the-verse-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=9365","title":{"rendered":"POETRY &amp; FAMiLY: Larkin\u2019s This Be The Verse (again!)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"740\" height=\"501\" src=\"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/img_8965.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9366\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/img_8965.jpg 740w, http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/img_8965-300x203.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 706px) 89vw, (max-width: 767px) 82vw, 740px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">What a lot of Ol\u2019 Bull!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\">They fuck you up, your mum and dad.   <br \/>    They may not mean to, but they do.   <br \/>They fill you with the faults they had<br \/>    And add some extra, just for you.<br \/><br \/>But they were fucked up in their turn<br \/>    By fools in old-style hats and coats,   <br \/>Who half the time were soppy-stern<br \/>    And half at one another\u2019s throats.<br \/><br \/>Man hands on misery to man.<br \/>    It deepens like a coastal shelf.<br \/>Get out as early as you can,<br \/>    And don\u2019t have any kids yourself.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"893\" height=\"1024\" src=\"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/img_8966-893x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9368\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/img_8966-893x1024.jpg 893w, http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/img_8966-261x300.jpg 261w, http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/img_8966-768x881.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/img_8966-1339x1536.jpg 1339w, http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/img_8966-1785x2048.jpg 1785w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Onan, the Librarian.*<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>If I had been Larkin\u2019s editor at the time, or a friend or confidante, that he might\u2019ve road tested this on, I\u2019d\u2019ve advised him to ditch verses two and three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Verse one is brilliantly pithy and potent. After that it all withers on the vine. \u2018Man hands on\u2026 coastal shelf\u2019 is good, clever poetry, but verse one simply doesn\u2019t need it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Especially not the saccharine milksop climb-down of verse two\u2019s \u2018But they were\u2026\u2019 True, perhaps. But anodyne. Like taking a pair of secateurs to the Prime Minoan Bull that is verse one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"479\" height=\"740\" src=\"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/img_8964.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9367\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/img_8964.jpg 479w, http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/img_8964-194x300.jpg 194w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 479px) 100vw, 479px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Taking The Bull by The Horns.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>* <em>Not<\/em> the guy who said that the greatest one could achieve in this life was \u2018To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=9365\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;POETRY &amp; FAMiLY: Larkin\u2019s This Be The Verse (again!)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-2r3","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9365"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9365"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9370,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9365\/revisions\/9370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}