4.5: Phillip Larkin's "This Be The Verse"

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Photograph by Fay Godwin

Links to an external site. (1970)

Directions

Here, you will find Phillip Larkin's "This Be The Verse"

The poems are on a docx. file. I recommend either printing it our or annotating the digital copy on your computer, or taking notes on the story on a separate piece of paper.

Author's Bio:

Philip Larkin is most famous for his poetry. He was born in 1922 in Coventry, England. He was an English poet, Jazz Critic, and novelist. He was also a librarian at the University of Hull.

Pantheon by Datawheel

Links to an external site. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Links to an external site..

While reading the poem, keep these questions/ideas in mind:

While reading this poem, reflect on what type of theme or message that jumps out to you?
List the themes
Then, begin to note and list the different use of poetic and literary devices in the poem
What about these devices makes you feel this way?
What does the poem mean to you??
What is the author's tone? Are they being critical of their parents or of just parenting in general?
What do you think about the use of curse words?
How did the use of rhyme contribute/not contribute to the overall theme of the piece?
Did you like the poem? Why or why not?

Essay Topic

As a reminder, your essay topic is:

Do a close read of the poem. What is one overall theme/message that you see in the text? What are the literary/poetic devices that you see that are enhancing said theme/message?

"This Be The Verse" by Larkin.docx

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Source: Collected Poems (Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2001)