Two Poems Every Child (Past the Age of 18) Should Read


The first is a poem fragment (from Shelley's Epipsychidion) I picked up from reading E M Forster's The Longest Journey. Perhaps I'm not "forcing on it" the exact same thoughts that Shelley or Forster did, but I nevertheless find something that says "Carve out a Spiritual Life for Yourself." 

Thy wisdom speaks in me, and bids me dare
Beacon the rocks on which high hearts are wrecked.
I never was attached to that great sect        20
Whose doctrine is that each one should select
Out of the crowd a mistress or a friend,
And all the rest, though fair and wise, commend
To cold oblivion; though it is in the code
Of modern morals, and the beaten road        25
Which those poor slaves with weary footsteps tread
Who travel to their home among the dead
By the broad highway of the world, and so
With one chained friend, perhaps a jealous foe,
The dreariest and the longest journey go.        30

The second is a silly/serious poem from Philip Larkin. Again, I may have a slightly different understanding than Larkin himself had. But that's OK.


This Be The Verse


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.

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