Latest news with #PhilipLarkin
New York Times
5 days ago
- Health
- New York Times
How the Therapy Generation Chose to Be Childless
They mess you up, your mum and may not mean to, but they fill you with the faults they hadAnd add some extra, just for you. How many times had I read a version of these lines or heard them recited? The opening stanza of Philip Larkin's poem 'This Be the Verse' is a favorite of fictional shrinks and wise folk. I can say them by heart. But it was only last year, my stomach already stretching with new life, that I reread the poem and found myself focusing on the third stanza, which offers the logical conclusion of the earlier two: Man hands misery to deepens like a coastal out as early as you can,And don't have any kids yourself. There are few decisions more fraught for members of my generations — the cusp of millennial and Gen Z — than whether or not to become a parent. In 2023 the U.S. fertility rate fell to a record low. Some of the decline can be explained by a delay in having children or a decrease in the number of children, rather than people forgoing child rearing entirely. But it still seems increasingly likely that millennials will have the highest rate of childlessness of any generational cohort in American history. There are plenty of plausible explanations for the trend. People aren't having kids because it's too expensive. They're not having kids because they can't find the right partner. They're not having kids because they want to prioritize their careers, because of climate change, because the idea of bringing a child onto this broken planet is too depressing. They're swearing off parenthood because of the overturning of Roe v. Wade or because they're perennially commitmentphobic or because popular culture has made motherhood seem so daunting, its burdens so deeply unpleasant, that you have to have a touch of masochism to even consider it. Maybe women, in particular, are having fewer children simply because they can. I suspect there's some truth in all of these explanations. But I think there's another reason, too, one that's often been overlooked. Over the past few decades, Americans have redefined 'harm,' 'abuse,' 'neglect' and 'trauma,' expanding those categories to include emotional and relational struggles that were previously considered unavoidable parts of life. Adult children seem increasingly likely to publicly, even righteously, cut off contact with a parent, sometimes citing emotional, physical or sexual abuse they experienced in childhood and sometimes things like clashing values, parental toxicity or feeling misunderstood or unsupported. This cultural shift has contributed to a new, nearly impossible standard for parenting. Not only must parents provide shelter, food, safety and love, but we, their children, also expect them to get us started on successful careers and even to hold themselves accountable for our mental health and happiness well into our adult years. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
BBC News
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Study highlights poets' 'obsession' with lawnmowers
The university said the study revealed Britain's "poetic obsession" with the lawnmower, which has been used to explore themes such as childhood, violence and addiction. An early example was in 1651 when Andrew Marvell, a satirist and politician, wrote a poem where a scythe accidentally killed a bird as a comment on the English Civil Wars. Ms Gardner's study claims lawnmower poetry reached its highpoint in the last 50 years. In 1979, Philip Larkin described killing a hedgehog with a motorised lawnmower. And in 2007, Andrew Motion, who was poet laureate at the time, based an elegy for his father on memories of him mowing the lawn. Mark Waldron's 2017 poem I Wish I Loved Lawnmowers explored the narrator's addiction to crack cocaine. "British poets are very interested in the lawn as a nostalgic space, so lawnmowers are often associated with childhood memories, especially of fathers working," said Ms Gardner. "The lawn is a safe domestic, often suburban, space in which unexpected violence can occur, as when Larkin kills a hedgehog."
BBC News
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Cambridge study suggests 'poetic obsession' with lawnmowers
Academic research suggests British poets have been writing about mowing the lawn for nearly 375 study, published in Critical Quarterly, argues there is a "lawnmower poetry" tradition that dates back to the 17th Francesca Gardner, from Cambridge University, admitted it "might seem random" to write poetry about mowing."Lawnmowers draw people to poetry as much as poetry draws people to lawnmowers," she said. The university said the study revealed Britain's "poetic obsession" with the lawnmower, which has been used to explore themes such as childhood, violence and early example was in 1651 when Andrew Marvell, a satirist and politician, wrote a poem where a scythe accidentally killed a bird as a comment on the English Civil Gardner's study claims lawnmower poetry reached its highpoint in the last 50 1979, Philip Larkin described killing a hedgehog with a motorised in 2007, Andrew Motion, who was poet laureate at the time, based an elegy for his father on memories of him mowing the Waldron's 2017 poem I Wish I Loved Lawnmowers explored the narrator's addiction to crack cocaine."British poets are very interested in the lawn as a nostalgic space, so lawnmowers are often associated with childhood memories, especially of fathers working," said Ms Gardner. "The lawn is a safe domestic, often suburban, space in which unexpected violence can occur, as when Larkin kills a hedgehog." Follow Cambridgeshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
