This Be the Verse

With its theme of the unhappiness of the family unit and the general misery of life, “This Be The Verse” can be seen as a typical Larkin poem. So many of Larkin’s first-person speakers do not expect much from life; they view it as a dull and ordinary thing that has to be quietly endured. They are not foolish enough to nourish ideals about love or try to cultivate any deep sense of value or purpose in life. Nor do they much seek to shape it by force of will. It is life itself—with its inexorable, impersonal force—that shapes them rather than the other way around. Therefore, there is little point in trying to be adventurous.

As for Larkin himself, he was not happy as a child. His father, Sydney Larkin, could be quick-tempered and dogmatic in his views. For example, in the 1930s, he expressed his admiration for Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. However, he was enthusiastic about English literature, and this rubbed off on his son. He also supported Larkin’s interest in jazz, on one occasion buying him a set of drums. Larkin’s mother, Eva Larkin, was docile, dominated by her husband, and she did her best to run the household in a way that pleased him. Often, Larkin reported his parents would bicker, and there was an atmosphere of friction in the home. As a boy, Larkin was shy, had a stammer, and spent a lot of time alone. He later said he hated everyone as a child and was often angry.

In an unpublished memoir quoted by Larkin’s biographer Andrew Motion, Larkin wrote, “When I try to tune into my childhood, the dominant emotions I pick up are, overwhelmingly, fear and boredom.” By the time he reached his mid-teens, his mother’s negative attitude made his home unwelcoming:

[T]he monotonous whining dialogue she treated my father to before breakfast, and all of us at mealtimes, resentful, self-pitying, full of funk and suspicion, must have remained in my mind as something I mustn’t under any circumstances risk encountering again.

He also commented, “I never left the house without the sense of walking into a cooler, cleaner, saner and pleasanter atmosphere” (Philip Larkin: A Writer’s Life, Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1993, pp. 13-14).

Larkin was, however, sensitive to the possibility that readers of “This Be The Verse” might make the wrong assumption about his relationship with his parents. He commented, “I wouldn't want it thought that I didn’t like my parents. But at the same time they were rather awkward people and not very good at being happy” (quoted in Skinner, John. “Philip Larkin by Philip Larkin.” ARIEL, vol. 20, Jan. 1989, p. 86).

As a result of his upbringing and temperament, Larkin thought that people should not live together. He did not like children and avoided marriage, though he had several long-lasting close relationships with women. He tended to be gloomy and sometimes suffered from depression. He was, however, devoted to his mother—his complaints about her notwithstanding—and visited her about every two weeks after he left the family home. Sydney Larkin died in 1948, and Eva outlived him by 29 years. She and her son corresponded twice weekly for 35 years, and the letters reveal a deep and lasting relationship in which they shared minute details of their lives.