Both its brutal brilliance and its blunt language made it quickly notorious. No wonder. The first verse went about its business briskly and forcefully:
They **** you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
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Shocking return of poisonous, murderous creed
When Philip Larkin published his poem, This Be the Verse, in 1971, his fierce, economical dissection of family life sent out shockwaves.
