Here

This poem is another moving poem similar to Whitsun Weddings, the first stanza describes the countryside, the movement in the stanza is quite violent and jerky. As the poem goes on it slows and the persona starts to focus on man made materials. And he starts to become a little snobby at the working class who are "urban yet simple" which implies that he may be upper class because he does not seem to approve the working class- "cut-price crowd". By the end the poem it is more positive as the last line has a positive list of three- facing the sun, untalkative, out of reach. "facing the sun" could suggest that loneliness isn't a bad thing and that being alone gives you time to think and make the right decisions. Which is true in real life, I think that when your on your own, you can make the decisions that are right for you and not revolve them around someone else in your life. More freedom? "Out of reach" suggests he was looking into the distance, like he has a desire to reach something he wants; makes us think of Gatsby and the green light. 

The Whitsun Weddings

Throughout the poem the stanzas change and the persona becomes more aware about his surroundings whilst he is on a moving train. In the first two stanzas he focuses on and observes the landscape outside the window of the train. I think he might have been feeling rushed to get to this train as he states "all sense of being in a hurry gone." We do not know where its going but it must be somewhere romantic or isolated as on  the train journey, many newly wed couples board the train. Stanzas 3 and 4 are him becoming more aware of the people around him and how they are disturbing him. Which I think we can all link to because if your on your own you tend to day dream about something, and once someone disturbs you, you start to become aware of everything around you and the people who are present. I like that by the end of the poem it starts to slow down, like the motion of the train that he is on. My favourite line in the poem is "Sent out of sight, somewhere becoming rain". Out of sight could mean the future, or that he is coming up to some crossroads that have consequences that are out of sight. "Somewhere becoming rain" suggests that he has some relief from the heat, which he experienced early on when he was on the train. But it could also be pathetic fallacy, and that the end of the train journey could be something bad and something may be ruined.

Dannie Abse

Born- 22nd September 1923

Dannie is a poet, author, doctor and playwright.

Abse first studied medicine at the University of Wales College of Medicine, and then at Westminster Hospital Medical School and King's College London.

He was born into a Jewish family in Wales and was the younger brother of Wilfred Abse, a psychoanalyst. His brother, Leo Abse, was a prominent politician.

The welsh poet has written 17 books since 1954 to 2003.

Returning from a poetry reading in Golders Green he was involved in a car accident where his wife Joan died. He mourned over the death of his wife in his 2007 memoir "The Presence". 

Dockery and Son

I think this poem is about making the right life choices that you are happy with. It implies how different he is from everyone and also not realising where his past years have gone. "How much had gone of life, How widely from the others" I think that he was not focused on what was happening outside his life. So when he suddenly realises he's not the same as the others it shows that he hasn't moved on and had a family like Dockery has. There's an epiphany in this poem and it shows that life goes too quickly and choices that you make will determine your life, until its too late. Like the man in the poem, I thinks its got to a point in his life where he has realised he can not go back and have a life like Dockery and have a son because it may be too late for him.

Ambulances

I think that this poem is interesting. I like the image its portraying of holding onto life by a thread, which you can contrast with reality. The half rhymes are repeated in all stanzas suggesting that life is like a continuous loop, which no one has challenged. The poem has a bit of edginess to it because the quote "lies just under all we do" suggests that anything could happen to anyone at any time, which is quite upsetting sometimes because no one wants to think that one different step can change everything. I think this poem portrays death, and the feel of the family loosening once a family member has gone- "At last begin to loosen". It suggests that the man in the poem is losing family members and his family is becoming less and less.