Musical Moments 1

His Last Piano Lesson 1933
Throughout this poem we see the boredom in which these piano lessons cause and this shows that one of the key themes in the poem are music. We can see within this poem that music is not enjoyed like it is in Larkins poems where he expresses music as being his escape and get away we do not get the same reaction to music from Abse. Word such as 'Numbly bored' show that this piano is not so much something they enjoy or a hobby but a chore something the child has to do. Can hear all the children playing outside yet he has to sit in and play the piano.  The phrase 'a coffin of music' almost shows that music bores the child to death. Its not as fun as playing and being outside and doing your own thing.
In this poem we see a more negative side of Abse more of one that we would find in Larkins poetry. The recurring theme of death which is what we find in the last quote stated.

At The Concert

From the first two stanza's we see that it is almost a journey that Abse has been on and all the things/ animals he has came across. This is similar to the things that we saw in 'Whitsun Weddings' by Philip Larkin, when there is the train journey and Larkin/ the persona talks about everything he can see and hear. The whole poem gives me this feeling of reminiscing of memories and losing himself in the music. 'Do you wait, as I do, numb, for something to happen until it happens?' This reminds me Larkins 'Reference back' and also 'Dockery and Son' where there is the questioning of life decisions and questioning how different there lives are compared to what they could have been like if they had made different decisions and taken a different path. Abse uses a lot of self questioning throughout this poem and I think that this portrays the feeling of there will always be new questions to ask up until you grow old and frail. 'It stretches all the way to the Old People's Home' that notion of growing old and yet still not all questions have been answered.

Red Balloon

We see a more negative approach here in this poem unlike the positive feelings we have gotten from some of Abse's other poems. I got a similarity to Larkin's poem 'Ambulances' because there is the notion of sadness and how it is society making this sadness occur. Here we see this young boy getting bullied for being a Jew but we see him stand up for himself and not give up anything just to see the bullies get what they want. 'But still it would not burst' I feel that this balloon is like a metaphor for his pride and life. No matter how much these boys would laugh and pick this balloon would not burst just like his pride. He was a Jew so he came from a Jewish family so I think that Abse is trying to show the reader how much stick that the Jews had been through and used this metaphoric devise to show that that they will not give up. You can tell that the boy is young in the poem because a balloon is normally associated with children or maybe an occasion.

A Scene From Married Life

This is a poem about his wife. The poem is undoubtedly about the struggles that him and his wife has had to go through, he shares similar views to Larkin to me this just reminded me about how Larkin was so anti marriage and marriages never work sort of attitude although this is not what Abse is trying to say but he is just sort of answering the views that Larkin has put out there. Because this shows that love and marriage isn't always plain sailing and their is daily struggles. The key themes in this poem are love. But I think Abse portrays this argument in quite a childish manor and it does end up being some what comical. Abse uses the word 'squabble' and to me this just makes me think of two children arguing over a toy or something, this word doesn't really show any hatred that they have towards one another is child like. But in the same stanza the word 'verbal revenge' is used to me this seems more adult like and more argumentative because it makes the argument seem like some sort of competition. 'Revenge' is quite a nasty word to me it is a word you would use for someone you hate, or someone that has caused you pain and hurt you. That word would be a better word to sum up the situation because they are probably shouting names and probably doing it out of anger and not spite. I think this poem shows the other side of love than what Larkin's poems do, Larkin makes it out to be that love isn't nice because it doesn't always work out. But here Abse shows that despite all the bitterness and nastiness that it can still work because in the end it is all okay.
In stanza 6 we see Abse coming to realization of how important family and his children are to him. ' I swivelled for a last winsome longshot, saw on the high cliff my wife dressed in blue and all of the world true and desirable. With surrendering waves crawled to the shore.' to me the word 'surrender' just shows his love to her because the moment he sees her he just knows that there is no point in arguments and gives in and gives up despite all the things they have said about each other. Also we see here that Joan Abse's wife is dressed in blue. Blue is a colour that you would represent with calmness and maybe forgiveness so here you see that she is also there for the same reason because she loves him and wants them to be okay.

The Malham Bird

This is a poem about his wife.
The structure of this poem reminds me of Larkin, in the way that in the 4^th stanza of the poem it turns quite philosophical if you look into it with some detail. Also in the way that they both similarly use metaphors to show there views.

Unlike Larkin, Dannie Abse has a completely different view. He shows signs of being a religious man whereas Larkin we seemed to get the idea that he had very atheist views. We can see this when he says ‘I a Jew’ and also The Malham Bird is a religious symbol and it something that the Jewish people believe in.  Although we cannot say whether these are Abse’s views or not he writes in a way that seems more personal. Whereas Larkin uses a persona to express views making them seem less personal.

Last Visit to 198 Cathedral Road

Abse is revisiting a place full of memories this place is the house where his parents used to live before they both passed away. 'living room,did I say? Dying room, rather' this shows similar themes to which some we have seen in Larkin's such as death. Here you can see that this is about death. In stanza to the objects off the house are personified. 'the vase that yawned hideously' it is almost symbolizing the loss of the parent I think here it is the mother that has passed and all her belongings just shows the loneliness and how everything is left how it was before the death. We see similarities within other poems of Abse 'surgeons pocket torch' here it is similar to the poem 'A Winter Visit' because there he mentions the white coat and how he inhabits this coat so his dad is obviously a surgeon and he is finding all their old belongings.

A winter Visit

In this poem we see similarities to Larkin's work as it talks about many of the similar things we have seen throughout his poems. Such as death, love and life. The poem talks about age 'now she's ninety I walk through the local park where, too cold' I think the coldness explained could be death. He uses 'cold' and 'dark' similarly like Larkin when he uses feelings to represent death. The persona in the poem talks about how quickly time passes and uses places such as the park to trigger memories. The idea of the white coat suggests that the persona is a doctor or scientist. The poem shows someone being emotionless 'am not qualified to weep' doesn't want to cry or cannot cry.