This summer I finally was able to watch Schmigadoon on AppleTV. I decided to watch Ted Lasso after that since I had heard so many good things about it. I finally finished the three great seasons last night. One of the best TV shows period. Music and poetry turned out to be artfully placed on the show.

In season 3, episode 11, there was a Philip Larkin poem, “This Be The Verse” about the ongoing trauma passed from parents to their children.

The poem marks a crucial point in the final two episodes, finally convincing Ted he should return to America to his son, thus wrapping up his whole adventure coaching a football team in Richmond.

Here is the poem:

This Be the Verse

Philip Larkin

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.

Due to the popularity of the show (and the serious treatment of the poem in the plot), there are other sites who have explicated the poem and its placement in the show.

SCREENRANT’s explication  says, “…in the series’ penultimate episode, Mae pulls through with some elderly insight for Ted that helps him get over a mental hurdle….which offers a perspective on the cycle of nurture and upbringing, a common theme throughout Ted Lasso. From Ted to Rebecca to Jamie, one of the show’s central concepts is about how adults are still effected by the way they were treated in their youth. In Ted’s case, he dealt with serious trauma regarding his father’s suicide at a young age, and his mother’s upbeat and positive personality prevented him from truly healing from the incident, instead repressing his emotions on the matter. This was similar to her upbringing, as she was raised against therapy and taught to never talk about difficult subjects. The poem in Ted Lasso season 3, episode 11 demonstrates a cyclical nature, implying that she is simply passing on the faults she received from her parents.”

The Pop Poetry blog, which looks very interesting, has a great overview of both the show, the poem and Larkin. The post says that Larkin is more well-known to British readers but I remember Larkin being a revered poet among the instructors of Sarah Lawrence College. Pop Poetry calls the poem Larkin’s “Stairway to Heaven” and puts the poem in context with his other poems.  Go here to read the great post: https://poppoetry.substack.com/p/larkin-lasso.

Pop Poetry also has a post about how the show famously misquoted Walt Whitman (maybe on purpose): https://poppoetry.substack.com/p/ted-lasso-misquotes-walt-whitman.

More good stuff from Pop Poetry: https://poppoetry.substack.com/.