A Love That Involves Evolution

 

This Be The Verse#larkin #thisbetheverse #highwindows 3#the60s

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.

Annus Mirabilis by Philip Larkin

Annus Mirabilis

Sexual intercourse began
In nineteen sixty-three
(which was rather late for me) -
Between the end of the Chatterley ban
And the Beatles' first LP.

Up to then there'd only been
A sort of bargaining,
A wrangle for the ring,
A shame that started at sixteen
And spread to everything.

Then all at once the quarrel sank:
Everyone felt the same,
And every life became
A brilliant breaking of the bank,
A quite unlosable game.

So life was never better than
In nineteen sixty-three
(Though just too late for me) -
Between the end of the Chatterley ban
And the Beatles' first LP.

A Quick Scoot Round Blake's Universe

We enjoyed (an eternity in) a half hour at the @ The Fitzwilliam Blake's Universe exhibition in Cambridge. This is a scrap book of impressions, ideas we already had about Blake interacting with new ideas we hadn't grasped before. The magic turned me into a Tyger for a bit but I'd reverted to a canary by the time I got to to the football end of the week in Norwich. It's a terrific show - ends Sunday 19th.