The Winter Visit

The poem is about the son taking his ninety year old mother for a walk through the park on a cold winter day. They see peacocks which emblems life, but his mother is slowly dying- "This winter I'm half dead, son". And he wants to get upset but he knows that crying wont change anything for his mother. Key themes in the poem is Ageing, death and dying, illness, family, and relationships. I can imply that him and his mother are close and he does not want her to leave him. This poem is similar to Larkin's-Ambulances because its about holding onto life by the thread and not letting go like the persona is to his mother in The Winter Visit. Both are about losing family members and life becoming less and less.