Dannie Abse Cricket Ball

In this poem we see the personas love for cricket - the persona has gone to watch 'Glamorgan play' and the persona also tells us that he likes Slogger Smart - who is different from the other players. He is 'free from the disgrace from fame, unrenowned.' This shows that the persona thinks that fame came change people, yet it hasn't effected Slogger, and that's why he likes him best. Abse uses a pun on cricket at the end of the stanza, saying 'the biggest hit with me'. The second stanza shows the use of pathetic fallacy, 'sound of summer' suggesting that summer conveys the notion of happiness, excitement and prosperity in people, and the crowd at the cricket ground. This is further developed by the use of the metaphor, 'the ball is alive' suggesting that summer brings people and inanimate objects to life.

Dannie Abse Blond Boys

Each stanza in the poem reflects on the memories that the persona had with Eva Jones, his first love as a child. He emphasises how time has passed by saying 'remember me?/My acne. Your dimples. This suggests that time has passed since then but shows how he still recognises her, and enforces that as a child he did love her. The use of the word 'forever' in the 5th stanza could suggest that he can never forget the memory and that it will stay with him forever.
In the last stanza the persona describes how Eva didn't want to be with the persona because she preferred blond boys. The persona describes Eva talking to him in prose which makes me think of  Shakespeares' Romeo and Juliet - with them talking in sonnets to each other, and the other characters talk in prose. This could suggest that she shows no love to the persona.

Dannie Abse Two Photographs

Two photographs is about Abse highlighting the differences between his two aunts that have since died. We get direct comparisons of them, much like in Larkin's Wild Oats - the difference being that whilst Larkin is comparing them and prefers one of the women, Abse is saying how he likes them both and cannot choose between them, despite their differences. Larkin's Wild Oats is critical of one of the women whereas Two Photographs is a celebration of them both, displaying the love and fondness Abse has to both of them equally.
The last stanza is quite philosophical in the way it describes Abse's thoughts on their memory and how it remains in him. Abse is saying here that the dead exist in the minds of people who knew and loved them, but when we die, the dead are forgotten. He is sad to think that one day when he dies his children's grandchildren will not know who his aunts were, and their striking personalities that they possessed and that Abse loved will be forgotten.
You could also link this to Larkin's poem 'To Sidney Bechet' as both poems are a celebration of their lives.

Dannie Abse At the Concert

The first two stanzas of the poem suggests that everyday passes the same as the last, never recognising one day to be different than another. 'The same old grass, same old flavour' could be a metaphor for life, with Abse saying that our life is just one big fixed routine.The horse in the second stanza could also be a metaphor for human life, saying that we don't move and we are all like a 'statue' - we don't do anything different in our lives - we all have the same structure. 
The fourth stanza highlights how Abse thinks as humans we always wait for things to happen in life. This is suggested by the line - 'If so, join the queue. It stretches all the way to the Old People's Home'. - You can infer from this that Abse thinks we always wait for things to happen but also that we will wait until we get old and ultimatley we will wait until we die, still having achieved nothing.

Dannie Abse Musical Moments 2

From the poem we get the impression that Miss Crouch, the personas piano teacher from part one of musical moments, has died and now that he has grown up has begun to appreciate her and how he is sorry that he was ignorant when she was trying to teach him to play the piano. The persona now realises how good a person Miss Crouch was and he begins to regret that he didn't listen to her and appreciate her. 

Dannie Abse Musical Moments 1

Musical moments 1 seems to be about a boy who piano lessons is forces upon by his father. Whilst the other children are outside in the park - where he wants to be - the boy is inside with his 'upright piano teacher', 'numbly bored with scales'.

Dannie Abse Red Balloon

The poem is about a child who owns a red balloon that the other children dislike and want to destroy. You can infer this as being a reference to Abse's religion, with others being prejudice towards Jew's. However, towards the end of the poem, we see the boy being proud of his possession even when the other boys have beaten him. This could suggest that Abse has suffered for his religion but is still proud to be apart of it. 

'It was my shame, it was my joy' suggests that even though he loves his religion, it brings him despair and the use of the oxymoron could suggest that he likes being different although he doesn't fit in. The line 'it would not burst' suggests that Abse fights for his religion and will not give up easily. To back this idea up further, the lines 'give up'...'I don't know exactly why' shows that he doesn't know why he should just give in to the boys threats and violence. 

Dannie Abse A Scene From Married Life

We see the persona remembering an argument he has had with his wife and how the words were said out of spite. 

In the third stanza we get the impression that the persona is stuck in the marriage and he can't escape from the line - 'resentful wedlock'. 

In the sixth stanza we see the persona giving in and surrendering to his wife - 'with surrendering waves I crawled to the shore'. 

The last stanza suggests that even though they would agree to stop fighting that it would never last long - suggested by 'and then...'

You could compare this poem to Larkin's Talking in Bed, with both using nature to describe mood and emotion. 

Dannie Abse A Winter Visit

We get the impression from the poem that the persona is walking through the park with his elderly mother who is coming close to death. The personas mother recognises that she is close to death - 'this winter I'm half dead son' and the persona himself knows it too. 

In the fourth stanza we can infer that even though the persona is sad about his old mothers age, he cannot express any emotion. 

From the last stanza we see that the persona doesn't want to talk about death with his mother, even though they are both thinking about it. This shows that he is sensitive and caring towards his mother as he loves her and doesn't want to think or talk about her dying. 

You could link this poem to Larkin's Home is so Sad and Reference Back - with the persona realising how old his mother is. 

Dannie Abse The Malham Bird

Abse remembers the first holiday with his wife in the first three stanzas. We get the impression that this holiday is very dear to him as he clearly remembers lots of details about it. However in the last two stanzas there is a philosophical shift as Abse talks about 'the Malham bird' a Jewish legend of the bird of Eden who obeyed the commandment not to eat the forbidden fruit even when the other birds ate them, they get banished and he lives in paradise forever alone. 

You could link this to Larkin's poem The Whitsun Weddings as not only is there a underlying message about marriage in this poem, but there is also a philosophical shift at the end of the poem. 

Dannie Abse Last Visit to 198 Cathedral Road

From the poem we can infer that the persona has gone back to a house that he once used to live in a long time ago with his parents. It suggests in the poem that his parents have died and he is sitting in his fathers armchair in the dark, alone. We can infer from the poem that he is alone and his parents are no longer there by the line - 'not one, comforting, diminutive sound' this could mean that he no longer feels comforted in this house as their is no life in it since his parents have died. However personification is used in the second stanza to describe the objects in the room. By using personification, Abse could be suggesting that he isn't alone in this room and all the objects have a personal connection towards him.

You could link this poem to Larkin's 'Home is so Sad' because the poem talks about how the house stays the same, waiting for its owner to return and we also get the feeling that it could be about Larkin's mother who died and the home she left behind. 

Reaction to Toads Revisited

The poem shows how the people that don't work 'walk around in the park' and are 'stupid or weak'. The persona considers them to be 'failures' who just sit about, 'hearing the hours chime' - suggesting that they just while away the hours and don't have anything worth while in their lives to do. However, in though the persona recognises that this lifestyle 'should feel better than work', it doesn't suit him, and he prefers to be at work as it gives him something to do. In the last stanza we see him embrace his work, much like a friend - 'give me your arm old toad; Help me down Cemetery Road' suggesting that he wants work to accompany him to his death. 

Reaction to Naturally the Foundation will Bear your Expenses

The persona in the poem is very dislike able and we get the impression that the poem is a satire to academics, possibly the ones that Larkin himself had met in the University Library. The persona seems to brag about the universities his been around the world to lecture at in the first stanza. 

In the second and third stanza we see the persona heavily criticising Remembrance Day, calling it 'wreath-rubbish' and 'mawkish', all because he was being held up by it and making him late for his plane. We get from this poem that the persona is very self centred, especially through his vicious attack on the day, and also in the last stanza, through his name dropping of the 'great Professor Lal/(He once met Morgan Forster)'. 

Reaction to An Arundel Tomb

The poem is about how the love of two medieval people has been cemented for hundreds of years through the tomb of them holding hands. However, it also shows the idea of how the meaning of something can be changed and interpreted differently through the years dependant on the new generations that come and visit the tomb. 

Reaction to Afternoons

Even though on the surface of the poem seems as though Larkin is scathing about the lives and experiences of the working class people, Larkin is actually quite empathetic with the women in the poem, and seems to understand that they become pushed to the side of their own lives when they have a family and have to look after their home too. 

Reaction to Send No Money

In the first stanza the persona is a child and we see him talking to the personification of 'time'. Whilst other boys wanted to get on with their life and experience things for themselves, the persona asks time to tell him what is going to happen in his life. 

In the last stanza 'half life is over now' for the persona and he has realised that he hasn't proved anything by sitting back and watching others experience things. 

Reaction to Essential Beauty

In Essential Beauty we see the ideal version of reality portrayed through advertisements and juxtaposed to the actual reality of people's lives. 

In the first stanza there are descriptions of how adverts portray reality, directly contrasted with the second stanza, with Larkin showing what life is really like. 

In the first stanza there is imagery of 'a glass of milk stands in a meadow' contrasting with the image in the second stanza of 'dark raftered pubs' milk, having a sweet taste, contrasting with the idea of the bitterness of beer inside pubs, and also the idea of meadows having no confines and giving an image of freedom, whereas 'dark raftered pubs' makes me think of being enclosed in a place that is unnerving. 

We get the impression from the second stanza that advertisements try to take advantage of the elderly by emphasising the importance of tradition from 'a halfpenny more' and 'to taste old age' suggests that elderly people will happily spend more on recognised, traditional brands. 

Reaction to Ignorance

I think that the main message in Ignorance is that Larkin feels there is a certain pressure in society to conform to identifying what your religious beliefs are, even when we can never be sure whether there is a God or not. 

'Strange to no nothing' never to be sure

Of what is true or right or real

But forced to qualify or so I feel.' 

I think Larkin is here asking the question of, how can make a decision on our religious beliefs when we actually don't really know anything about God ourselves. 

Reaction to First Sight

First sight signifies the cycle of birth, death and rebirth - world may seem bleak in the winter for the newborn lambs, but then when the snow melts away spring begins - could signify hope for the lambs. This poem seems like a complete opposite to Larkin's other poem, Ambulances. 

Reaction to Sunny Prestatyn

In the first stanza we see the idealised vision of a dream holiday location 'hotel with palms' and 'a hunk of coast' displayed on a poster with a girl advertising 'Sunny Prestatyn'. 

However, in the second and third stanza, we see how the poster, mainly the woman, has been a victim of sexist vandalism. Even though the language used is quite light hearted, in the Third stanza we see something darker, that the vandal is proud of his work, even autographing it for everyone to see. This shows that the person who has defaced the poster thinks it is funny to do this, willingly displaying his misogynistic views. 

Reaction to As Bad as a Mile

In the last stanza I think it links very strongly with the story of Adam and Eve, 'the apple unbitten in the palm' being a reference to Eve reaching for the apple and taking a bite, and then being banished from Eden. This could be Larkin suggesting that he thinks people don't think about what we do and the consequences that it could have for our future and also that we're in it for what we can get for ourselves, and that we don't think about how it could affect others. You could also interpret this line by saying that life is full of possibilities, much like the apple, but yet we as humans, always seem to take advantage of things, leading to failure. An alternative reading in to the line could be that we should resist temptation and we will get the reward later in life.

Reaction to The Large Cool Store

In this poem, we get the impression that the persona is looking down upon the middle class people he is describing in the store as he uses words like 'they' - excluding himself from these people and we get the impression that he doesn't want to be associated with them. 

Larkin uses words like 'clusters' as 'unearthly' to express his distaste for these middle class women and it also gives us the impression that he is sneering at them. 

In the last stanza, the line 'or in our young unreal wishes' he is saying that we all want the same thing, including himself with the word 'our' which is love. 

Reaction to The Importance of Elsewhere

From the poem we get the impression that the persona feels isolated and lonely in Ireland yet he feels comfortable and feels that in a place where nobody knows him, he feels normal. The persona feels that in England, where his home is, he is not allowed to be himself - separate, anti social, strange and isolated yet in Ireland, where he is different from others, he feels normal, as he can be himself. This main theme presents a paradox as only elsewhere can he feel like himself where nobody knows him and yet at home he feels he has to conform to the expectations of others, fearing he might lose his true self and become someone he's not. 

Reaction to A Study of Reading Habits

By using the word 'cured' the persona suggests that during his school years, reading was his escape, where he could imagine himself as a character in a book, instead of being someone who was bullied at school. In the second stanza we see the persona going through his teenage reading, with him suggesting that he devoured books much like women. However, in the last stanza, the persona reveals that he doesnt read now, because when he was younger he wanted to be able to relate himself to the hero but now knows that he is much more like the coward, 'the chap who's yellow'.

Reaction to Wild Oats

Wild oats presents a paradox in the poem - the woman the persona has, he doesnt want, and the woman he wants, he hasnt got. We see the persona committed to the notion of the perfect woman, and unable to accept the woman he's got for who she is.
The persona shares his desire to be with a 'bosomy rose' and won't be committed or happy with any one who isn't, yet when he meets this type of woman, the persona says 'she was trying both times (or so I thought) not to laugh' suggesting that to the woman, the persona is a joke.

Reaction to Ambulances

'closed like confessionals, they thread' - by confessionals you could infer saving your soul from hell could be the ambulance/paramedic is saving the person from death and the word 'thread' could mean that the persons life is hanging by a thread, dependant on the ambulance coming to save them from death. In stanza 3 the line 'that lies under all we do' could be the persona realising that much like the person needing an ambulance, we are all vulnerable, it could be any one of us and death could take us at any time and ultimately there is nothing we can do to prevent it. 'so permanent and blank and true' could be referring to the reality of existence but also to death, the fact that it is inevitable to everyone and most perceptions of death is that it's permanent and that when we die there is nothing, death is the end of everything.

Reaction to MCMXIV

The poem is inspired by WW1 and is about young men waiting to be enlisted for the war. The first stanza shows the patriotism of the crowds watching them enlist. The poem has a lot of dramatic irony in it, with the young men full of hope and prosperity for the war and what it will make of them - however we know that the war will result in death for many of them. 

Reaction to Days

Days could be questioning what we are doing during our existence and whether what are doing is of any worth. Larkin suggests that people live their lives in monotony by saying - 'they come, they wake us/time and time over'. 

'Where can we live but days?' Could hint at his atheist views as Christians would say heaven, but he is questioning what's next. 

Reaction to Take One Home for the Kiddies

The poem infers that the persona thinks children treat pets like toys with no feelings or emotions and that ultimately they don't really care about them and when they die, they will be forgotten and the children will move on to something different that they want their parents to buy them.

Reaction to Water

In the poem you could infer that the persona feels that religion is no longer purely spiritual as it is too strictly controlled - 'A furious devout drench' could infer that the persona feels religion itself needs to be cleansed with water to purify it again. Larkin uses the word 'construct' in the first stanza to suggest he feels that religion is a man made conception and not something spiritual. The word 'fording' in stanza 2 could suggest that the persona feels that religion is a shallow crossing to the answers that we all desire, manly about death. It could be that Larkin is inferring that he thinks religion is just a form of escapism, and that it teaches people not to fear death, even if what it's saying is not necessarily known to be true. However, it sounds like Larkin accepts that some people do trust what religion says even if he does not. 

Reaction to Faith Healing

In the poem, we get the impression that these women are lonely, they lack kindness in their lives and they need love and support. Because of the lack of this, it makes the women vulnerable, and the faith healer is exploiting them because they are weak and naive. They cannot see that he is just an act and even though the women's faith in him is genuine, sadly he is not. His entourage herd the women on to the stage, and when they meet him, 'each dwells some twenty seconds' before being pushed aside and disregarded - it could be a link to what has happened to them in their lives. 

'A sense of life lived according to love' is not only referring to the women and how they want to feel again after a life of neglect, but the persona also suggests that this is everyone's ideal - that we all want to be loved continuously throughout our lives. 

Reaction to Nothing to be Said

In the first stanza, we see a variation in different cultures and people, but Larkin points out through 'life is slowly dying' that we are all the same because of the fact that we are all dying together. You could also interpret this by saying that even though everyone is different, death provides everyone with equality. 

In the second stanza, 'ways of slowly dying' could mean that we all do different things to satisfy us before dying, to keep us occupied before death, also reaffirming the idea of that in the first stanza. 

In the third stanza we see Larkin's view that we as humans want to give evidence to our existence through reproducing and also gives the notion that Larkin feels that whilst life goes quickly - 'or birth, advance', death is eternal. Larkin recognises religion by the last three lines - 'and saying so to some/means nothing; others it leaves/nothing to be said.' - Christians believe in life after death, heaven - so therefore death is another journey, whilst others believe that death is the end.