Longverse.

This week's Contemporary Lit homework (which I am pathetically rushing the night before class) is really tickling my funny bone. Here're three poems I love, take a read-through and tell me what you think :

"This Be The Verse" by Philip Larkin

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.

They may not mean to, but they do.

They fill you with the faults they had

And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn

By fools in old-style hats and coats

Who half the time were soppy-stern

And half at one another's throats.

Man hands on misery to man.

It deepens like a coastal shelf.

Get out as early as you can,

And don't have any kids yourself.

"Bloody Men" by Wendy Cope

Bloody men are like bloody buses -

You wait for about a year

And as soon as one approaches your stop

Two or three others appear.

You look at them flashing their indicators,

Offering you a ride.

You're trying to read the destinations,

You haven't much time to decide.

If you make a mistake, there is no turning back.

Jump off, and you'll stand there and gaze

While the cars and the taxis and the lorries go by

And the minutes, the hours, the days.

"Let Me Die a Youngman's Death" by Roger McGough

Let me die a youngman's death

not a clean and inbetween

the sheets holywater death

not a famous-last-words

peaceful out of breah death

When I'm 73

and in constant good tumour

may I be mown down at dawn

by a bright red sport car

on my way home

from an allnight party

Or when I'm 91

with silver hair

and sitting in a barber's chair

may rival gangsters

with hamfisted tommyguns burst in

and give me a short back and insides

Or when I'm 104

and banned from the Cavern

may my mistress

catching me in bed with her daughter

and fearing for her son

cut me up into little pieces

and throw away every piece but one

Let me die a youngman's death

not a free from sin tiptoe in

candle wax and waning death

not a curtains drawn by angels borne

'what a nice way to go' death

I particularly love the last one. It's just so funny!

And now I will throw in some Snow Patrol for good measure, because I just love this part of the song... So heartbreakingly poignant and proud and sad. I do see a little bit of myself in this song. (No, there is no hidden meaning here :) )

You could be happy, I hope you are

You made me happier than I been by far

Somehow everything I own smells of you

And for the tiniest moment it's all not true

Do the things you always wanted to

Without me there to hold me back,

Don't think just do

-"You Could Be Happy", Snow Patrol