One of the first things readers notice about the poem “This Be the Verse” is the diction. Larkin chooses one of the most startling words in the English language—“fuck”—to immediately set an honest, casual, and brusque tone from the very first line. He claims the reader’s attention and highlights the intensity of the trauma that parents inflict on their children by declaring that they “fuck them up.” The language is strong and clear.

Larkin also speaks directly to the reader, arguing that “your mum and dad” inevitably “fuck you up.” This is another instance of diction designed to seize the reader’s attention. The fundamental problem between parents and children is significant because it has shaped “you,” the reader, and “your” parents. The discussion is in fact more general, with “your mum and dad” referring to an archetypal pair of parents. But the poem and the issue it presents is made personal by the use of second-person pronouns, and the informal language suggests that the poet is presenting an honest representation of reality. In this way, the casual language actually builds trust between the poet and the reader. One can almost imagine an older, wiser speaker pulling a younger figure aside to let them know what life is really like and giving them honest advice.

Larkin’s diction holds to this clear, straightforward tone until the third stanza. Momentarily, Larkin uses more lofty language: “Man hands on misery to man.” In the next line, the poet uses imagery and simile when he writes, “It deepens like a coastal shelf.” This is the only simile in the entire poem. For these two lines, the tone seems to have shifted to a more formal, elevated style poetry. However, the speaker then breaks out of this meditation, and the last two lines of the poem revert back to an informal tone. In these lines, the poet uses contractions (“don’t”) and words such as “get out” and “kids” to again achieve a casual, conversational tone.

“This Be the Verse” is a highly structured poem. Although Larkin uses very casual language and even obscenities at times, the form of the poem is traditional. The lines are composed in a neat iambic tetrameter, and the alternating rhyme scheme of ABAB is followed carefully in all three stanzas. 

With this classic ballad structure, “This Be the Verse” is a very musical poem. It appeals to the ear, and the rhythms and rhymes of the poem make it easy to recite. Larkin uses various tools to further this effect. He uses repetition, beginning the first three lines with the word “They.” He also uses alliteration; in several parts of the poem, he places words that have the same initial sounds in close proximity. Examples of alliteration would be “fill you with the faults,” “soppy-stern,” and “man hands on misery to man.” Larkin also uses short lines, phrases, and sentences to add to the poem’s conversational tone and accessible style.

The sound of the poem, like the speaker’s focus, shifts throughout. It begins with punchy, short words and hard consonant sounds. For example, “They fuck you up, your mum and dad” combines brusque, punchy, monosyllabic diction with the lilting, sing-song quality of the ballad form’s iambic tetrameter. In this way, Larkin achieves a kind of sardonic version of a nursery rhyme. Later in the poem, when Larkin shifts his focus to the human condition in general, the pace slows down. The 

Even though the ninth and tenth lines maintain the tetrameter rhythm, they slow down the pace of the poem with long vowel sounds and multisyllabic words, such as...