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.