LAST VISIT TO 198 CATHEDRAL ROAD // DANNIE ABSE

What is it about?

The poem describes a final visit back to what we presume is Abse's childhood home. He explains how he 'entered after dark the ground-floor flat' and milled around, certain objects bringing back significant meaning to his adult self. We know that this poem is from the point of view as an adult Abse as he mentions the 'surgeon's pocket torch' that he has, implying that he has graduated and is now working as a doctor. The house is no longer lived in, we can infer, as there is 'so much dust'. The poem resolves with Abse simply sitting and taking in his surroundings, reflecting on the memories he has had within this home and metaphorically saying 'goodbye' to the flat that is no longer lived in.

What are the deeper meanings?

It is evident that the flat is no longer lived in – we can presume that from the excessive dust and the fact that Abse has to visit during the night, breaking in 'like a burglar' – and that simple fact adds a sombre mood to the entire poem. The first thing Abse recalls doing is sitting in his father's armchair, which could have significant meaning. Perhaps his father has passed away and that is why sitting in the armchair is mentioned; subconsciously, Abse feels as if the armchair connects him to his father and the memories he shared with the man. When Abse mentions that the living room is more of a 'dying room', it is comedic and indeed a play-on-words, but it could imply that not just the room, but the entire flat is dying along with the memories that it holds and the people who once inhabited it. Now, it is nothing more than a shell; it is a house and not a home, because all of its residents are long gone and they have taken their memories with them.

What poetic devices are used?

Abse uses a lot of personification in this particular poem – 'the awakened empty fruit bowl' and 'the vase that yawned hideously.' By personifying the objects within the home, he is reasserting the point that the home once held life and potential when it was lived in by Abse and his family; even the inanimate objects within the flat were living but now that the people who used them, who gave them life, are gone, they are slowly dying along with the flat itself. The word 'Nothing' is also personified with the use of a capital letter, suggesting ‘Nothing’ is a person and not a thing. Abse also uses prosaic and informal language (slang) such as 'living room, did I say?' and 'so much dust, Mother!' By using these phrases, he lowers the sophisticated level of the poem and talks to us as readers directly, making the poem much more personal as he is choosing to confide in specific individuals i.e. the readers, about this experience he has had.

Links to Larkin?

• Reference Back – Both contain themes of parents.

• Mr Bleaney – Both poems talk about specific rooms or houses that have been lived in and the memories they once held.

• Home Is So Sad – Both are about leaving a home behind and the memories that are entailed with that.

A STUDY OF READING HABITS // PHILIP LARKIN

What is it about?

This poem does exactly what it says on the tin – it talks about reading and how books have different effects on different individuals. The poem is split into three distinct stages, each stanza outlining a phase in Larkin’s life; the first focuses on his childhood, the second takes us through his adolescence and finally, the third is his point of view on reading in adulthood. When Larkin was a boy, he used books to escape everything, except school, because that was inescapable: ‘when getting my nose in a book cured most things short of school.’ This could suggest that Larkin was perhaps bullied during his school-years for reasons that are unconfirmed, although we do know that reading provided him with comfort and reassurance. They allowed him to imagine he was in the shoes of the heroic protagonists in his stories – ‘deal out the old right hook to dirty dogs twice my size’ – and we can presume that these ‘dirty dogs’ were the school bullies. In his adolescence, he turned to the genre of horror, explaining that ‘evil was just my lark’. There are hints towards adult fiction also, when he mentions the women he ‘clubbed with sex’, breaking them up like ‘meringues’. This therefore implies books gave him a bit of a thrill. In his adulthood, Larkin explains how he doesn’t ‘read much now’, because all of the books he comes across are rather the same as one another – they ‘seem far too familiar’ – and he finishes with a comic epiphany, by telling his readers that ‘books are a load of crap’.                                    

What are the deeper meanings?

There are not many deeper meanings within this poem as the context is all rather surface-level, however there are themes of isolation present. Reading cuts one off from any social interaction, as one is enraptured in the story in their hand. This could therefore suggest that Larkin used to read a lot in his youth because he was lonely; there are, after all, hints that he could have been bullied during his school years. However, as he grows older, Larkin realises that being lonely perhaps isn’t such a bad thing and as he enters adulthood, he gives up the reading when he comes to terms with the fact that being alone isn’t the worst case scenario after all.

What poetic devices are used?

The language within the poem is informal and there are comic moments throughout that offer a funnier side to Larkin that we do not see in most of his other pieces of work. He uses exaggeration, explaining how in his adolescence, he wore ‘inch-thick specs’ and ‘me and my cloak and fangs had ripping times in the dark’. This could also be perceived as Larkin mocking himself and the boy he was in his youth. Slang is used in this poem as well, such as words like ‘specs’, ‘dude’ and ‘chap’, words that we would not usually associate with Larkin’s refined style. However, this makes us aware that Larkin intends for this particular poem to be comic and not for it to be taken seriously.

HOME IS SO SAD // PHILIP LARKIN

What is it about?

Larkin describes how 'home is so sad', because when it is no longer lived in, it goes back to being no more than an empty shell and is no longer a home, but merely a house. It is a poem about how the objects within in a home and the actual edifice do not make it a home, but the memories that are created within it by the people who live there.

What are the deeper meanings?

There are many themes of loneliness within the poem, more-so the loneliness of the personified house than the people who once lived there – 'having no heart to put aside the theft'. Once the residents have left, the house is alone once again, with nobody to live for, essentially. Larkin also refers to his frequent theme of potential and objects or people falling short of a goal they almost reached – 'a joyous shot at how things ought to be, long fallen wide'. The house had potential but the family or couple who lived there decided to move on, causing it to ultimately fall short. However, as well as featuring loneliness and isolation, the poem is about bereavement and loss; the house is personified as physically grieving for the inhabitants it has lost – it's described as 'sad' and is 'shaped to the comfort of the last to go'.

What poetic devices are used?

Personification is used throughout, making the house out to be an actual person who has a heart and soul. The rhythm of the poem is structured and it follows an A, B, A, B, A, C, D, C, D, C rhyming scheme, making it repetitive and familiar, like home. The words ‘long fallen wide’ in the second stanza for a long vowel sound, forcing the reader to draw them out. This adds emphasis to the fact that potential of the home has been lost by a long shot, indicated in those strung-out words. Finally, the poem ends with a metonym – ‘that vase’ and the use of a demonstrative adjective relates it to one vase in particular that holds significant meaning. By finishing on a short, sharp sentence, this adds emphasis and power to finish and finalise the poem.

HERE // PHILIP LARKIN

What is it about?

'Here' is a poem that takes the reader on a physical and emotional journey. It depicts Larkin (or Larkin's persona) travelling back to Hull via train and documents the sights that he sees and his feelings towards them as he goes. Larkin's distaste for urbanisation is evident throughout the poem although he describes the pastural setting upon the outskirts of Hull in a positive light. As the poem beings, Larkin is travelling towards Hull, 'swerving through fields too thin and thistled to be called meadows'. The second stanza focuses upon the town centre of Hull and Larkin begins to reveal his distaste for the heavy industrial areas of the place. He hints towards Hull being a claustrophobic space where 'cranes cluster beside grain-scattered streets [and] barge-crowded water'. However, he does mention the traditional 'domes and statues' of the town, revealing that he likes culture but not modernisation.  By the third stanza, we are drawn to the underbelly of Hull 'where only salesmen and relations come'. Larkin describes the people who live here as an urban yet simple cut-price crowd', revealing that he simply thinks they're cheap and dim. However, as we once again return to the countryside in readiness for the final stanza, the pace quickens: 'fast-shadowed wheat-fields, running high as hedges'. Larkin concludes his poem with an image of the beach - 'ends the land suddenly beyond a beach of shapes and shingle.'

What are the deeper meanings?

Themes of materialism are present throughout and Larkin focuses in on the people of Hull's town centre and how they're obsessed with upward mobility - 'cheap suits, red kitchen-ware, sharp shoes, iced lollies, electric mixers, toasters, washers, driers' - he reels off a list of material goods that the 'residents from raw estates' strive to obtain in order to conform to the ever-growing industrial scene of the town. His attitudes towards the working-class come across as snobbish and degrading; he depicts the 'residents from raw estates... stealing flat-faced trolleys', revealing his true thoughts towards those who he believes to be below him economically. Their desires are mindless to Larkin and purely materialistic. All they want to do is spend money. However, alongside themes and hints towards his distaste of materialism, Larkin reflects upon loneliness frequently, particularly towards the end of the poem. His manifesto seems to outline that loneliness allows you a chance to reflect. Being alone is not a bad thing; he simply believes that other people make you forget to think. He reels off a list of places within the town and purposely chooses to mention 'the slave museum' perhaps metaphorically saying that the people of Hull are enslaved to their material goods.

What poetic devices are used?

The entire first stanza revolves around natural imagery yet the repetition of the word 'swerving' three times creates a slow, monotonous and dull tone in order to reflect the mundane activity of travelling by train. The river is personified, giving the impression that Larkin is a part of the river's movement and it is this very flow that is magnetically pulling him towards Hull. Larkin concludes his poem by describing the coast. This clears the urbanisation of the city away and provides us with the first positive image we've had since the poem began. 'Here silence stands like heat', Larkin says, hinting that here it is quiet and still and far removed from the bustle of the town centre. 'Neglected waters quicken [and] luminously-peopled air ascends', giving the impression that here, in the countryside, nature can be reborn and grows and develops - it is able to breathe again.