Philip Larkin vs Ted Hughes

Good god, I've read so much about Ted Hughes recently that I now know about an obscure feud that ran between Hughes and Philip Larkin in the 1960s thru '80s. Sigh. The gist of it is that Hughes is the Chthonic Man and Larkin is the shallow, modern man. Hughes hated Larkin's poetry for its glibness, and Larkin hated Hughes's poetry for its alleged "myth kitty" posing (with accompanying leather jacket).

Now, I'd previously never read one word of Larkin. And I'd like to think that my deepest sensibilities run to Ted Hughes's chthonic/mythic view of things (and I like his long hair and battered leather jacket). However... A quote from a Larkin letter re Hughes at a poetry reading "...looking like a Christmas present from Easter Island." OK, that's funny. And then I did a quick search online for Larkin poems. Here's one:

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.

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OK, that is really funny, too! And not written by an ignorant "cancel culture" dummy today but from an educated UK poetry legend born in 1922! I was very amazed and happy when I read that well-earned iconoclastic poem!

When reading Ted Hughes, on the other hand: He's not light-hearted, that's for sure. But he's the only poet who has ever made me cry (well, aside from Hardy). I like Larkin (and have just bought his poems/letters/bio so I can learn more), but I love Hughes.