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.

Philip Arthur Larkin (1922 – 1985), angleški pesnik, romanopisec in knjižničar. Njegova prva pesniška knjiga Severna ladja je izšla leta 1945, sledila sta ji dva romana, Jill (1946) in A Girl in Winter (1947), zaslovel pa je leta 1955 z izdajo svoje druge zbirke pesmi, The Less Deceived, sledita The Whitsun Weddings (1964) in High Windows (1974). Med letoma 1961 in 1971 je sodeloval pri The Daily Telegraphu kot jazzovski kritik, s svojimi članki, zbranimi v All What Jazz: A Record Diary 1961–71 (1985), in urejal The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse (1973). Njegova številna priznanja vključujejo kraljičino zlato medaljo za poezijo. Leta 1984 so mu ponudili mesto dvornega kraličinega pesnika, a je zavrnil.