Nature vs. Nurture: This Be The Verse

As soon as you have the joys of taking a basic college level psychology class, you have the privilege of being introduced to the concept of nature vs. nurture. There has long been the debate that one outweighs the other in emotional and psychological development, with nature being inborn and nurture being environmental factors. However, during the 1960’s, many psychological articles began to surface that genetics did in fact have a lot to do with a persons psychological makeup. It is very possible that Philip Larkin’s poem “This Be the Verse” was reflecting these newly backed findings that we are not a product of just our environment but our genetics, as well.

The attention grabbing poem is written in the words of the every man, with no fluff or filler. The first two lines explain in simple terms how your parents will “fuck you up,” by no fault of their own with continuing to say they pass along their faults as well as a bit a extras. This perfectly demonstrates nature and nurture combined. The faults that are passed along “just for you” are genetic, as they can not be passed along to anyone else within the family unit. However, as proven through much psychological evidence, we are molded by our environment, so we are inevitably “fucked up,” by our parents in a nurture sense, as well. The second stanza is very indicative to the time, as the 70’s saw a great change in ideals and a generation that fought back against their parent’s beliefs, though this is hardly a new sentiment, which is captured in those lines. The closing stanza opens perfectly with “Man hands on misery to man” which can both mean genetic disorders and being stuck in the same environmental issues and beliefs one was raised in, only to continue the chain. The last line of “…don’t have any kids yourself” is the overkill meant to bring about a change in the cycle that seems to leave no hope for anyone.

Nature vs. nurture has been a battle of the ages since Plato and Descartes. Through time we have come to the conclusion that both play some sort of role in developing minds, but there is still an argument as to what part of the mind it shapes and how much of a role. In the end, though, does it even matter? Perhaps, what matters is breaking the change of misery as Larkin suggest.