Anger Management: A poet's perspective on who's to blame for the mess they're in

Nobody's perfect, least of all us as parents of grown children. But here's poet Philip Larkin's misanthropic perspective on how we may feel about our parents, and how our kids may feel about us--on rare occasion, of course. Pass the blame, anyone?

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.

--Philip Larkin

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Young adolescents twelve to sixteen years, more susceptible to things their own way because they feel that their emotions are monitored and freedom, the results of unmanageable anger.