This Be The Essay Essays - Literature, Poetry, Poetic Form

This Be The Essay Essays - Literature, Poetry, Poetic Form This Be The Essay This Be The Verse is a rollercoaster of different tones. The general idea behind this poem seems to be to amuse the reader with its simple and obscene language, making it easy to quote the poem. I, however, believe there's a deeper meaning behind the many changes of tone. Therefore, I will show how Philip Larkin constantly changes the tone of This Be The Verse to illustrate the stages of growing up. By going through the three stanzas and its tones I will explain how the tones are connected to life stages. The poem starts off in a harsh tone: They fuck you up, your mum and dad'. With the use of such strong language the reader's attention is instantly grabbed. The sentence is constructed in a simple manner, with only one-syllable words. This and the choice of words let the reader know that the poem they are about to read will be anything but boring. The angry tone of this first stanza represent the teen phase of life, a phase in which many young people find themselves angry very quickly. This is also a time where the typical adolescent will be wanting to break away from the family. This is also a time where the typical adolescent will be wanting to break away from the family. Then the tone changes from harsh to understanding in the second stanza. But they were fucked up in their turn' signals that Larkin no longer blames the parents, but instead the grandparents. What is said is that parents were also damaged by their own parents who spent their time either drunk (soppy-stern') or quarrelling with one another (and half at one another's throats'). This represents a never-ending cycle of kids copying bad behaviors from their parents and passing on their faults in their turn. The understanding tone of this stanza represents going into adulthood, a time where a lot of anger is replaced with understanding. People in midlife often think about the deeper meaning of their lives so they can move on with new understanding. Finally, the last stanza ends in a bitter tone. Man hands on misery to man' is no longer referring to anyone in particular but instead the entire human race. With It deepens like a coastal shelf' Larkin implies that this misery is a problem that will only get worse with the time. The author uses a simile with a coastal shelf': he compares the growing negative influence on younger generations with how a coastal shelf grows deeper in the sea. His ambiguous advice in the next sentence to Get out as early as you can' leaves the reader wondering if they are meant to either cut ties with their parents or get out' by killing themselves. This last stanza and its bitter tone represent the last stage of someone's life and the bitterness that often comes with it. So, the different tones of the three stanzas of this poem are in fact connected to the different stages in one's life. It also aligns up with the messages of each stanza, like the bitterness one would feel at the end of their life in the last stanza.