A personal and summary introduction to Philip Larkin's poem "This Be The Verse"(1)
Life is a fucking thing for every man. Nothing new in the principal assertion of our poet...
It sounds like William Shakespeare's famous words, in Macbeth,
"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing(2)."
Philip Larkin says that the misery of human condition is transmitted from generation to generation and that every new generation creates and gives to the next one a bigger misery. This is a realistic analyse of our society. This poem can raise therefore the question of the transmission of more than our physical appearance or hypothetical illness, the question of the transmission of our (educational) behaviour since the dawn of times...
Is really life a fucking thing? For me it is a question of point of view, but for the author the answer, in this poem, was evident. I hope for him (and for all of us) that the spiritual evolution is possible for smart, sensible and creative souls, in spite of our predetermined genome AND our family and social circle (you can read circus)!
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(2) SHAKESPEARE, William, "Macbeth", Act V, Scene V, verses 26-30 (http://www.enotes.com/macbeth-text/act-v-scene-v)