"This Be The Verse" by Philip Larkin

                  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.


Source of the text - Philip Larkin, High Windows.  New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1974, p. 30.

TJB: Pure proverb; nice demography advice. Harold Bloom might misread this monosyllabic epigram to be about Auden & arguing against writing poems.