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.