Dear Mr. Larkin,
I just finished reading your poem “This Be the Verse”
For Mr. Throckmorton A. Thrasher’s English class,
And as he wants us all to write you
Our impressions of it or else, I just want to say
I don’t remember my folks fucking me up one bit—
Come to think of it, I don’t recall them fucking at all;
From the looks of it, I guess yours did it
In plain view of everybody, including you.
Sincerely yours,
Thomas LeVoyeur III,
R. Clement Caning School of Interdisciplinary
Inquisitional Studies, 13 Hard Knox Lane,
Sully Hull, England
Dammit! You made me spit coffee on my shirt!
ReplyDeletehe must 'uve known my parents .. I still sometimes wear that old hat especially when I
ReplyDelete'cruise for girls ay the Wheaton Plaza Mall.
now, here is an analysis of that poem ... for those who don't 'get it' (as regularly as Larkin's parents "got 'it'" !
http://voices.yahoo.com/analysis-philip-larkins-verse-9004755.html?cat=4
this is by one Sophia Brookshire who has a BA degree in English AND an Associate's degree in Comparative Literature from UC Santa Barbara (The Pentagon of Poetry), so
this must be "right on"
Plainly it's that ominous "or else" of Mr Thrasher's that has captured the full attention of even a slow learner like our young Thomas, whose excellent manners surely must stand (even if nothing else did) for SOMETHING.
ReplyDelete(A fine advertisement for immaculate conception?)
ReplyDeleteDo I sense some empathy for our young Thomas?
Wow--great post.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Nin--certainly not the caliber of your incisive and literate humor, but what the hell, our young Thomas has to make do with what The Thrasher has to make him divvy up or else.
ReplyDelete