'A Winter Visit' by Dannie Abse (p53)

 

In this poem the speaker talks about a walk he went on with his "ninety" year old mother. He shows the reader how he is scared to lose her, creating themes of loss and love. He tries to remind her of life and be positive, however she's well aware that she's going to die soon, for "nothing keeps" us from death. The rhyming pattern of the poem is consistent, with the last word of the first and last line of each stanza rhyming, perhaps this symbolises how life is a cycle of being born and dying and then the same happening to a new generation.

Larkin's poem 'Home Is So Sad' and this poem have the theme of loss of a parent in common. Also, Love Songs in Age shows the theme of loss. As well as loss being a theme, I feel that death being inevitable is also a theme in this poem, so I also think that Larkin's 'Nothing To Be Said', 'Days', Ambulances', 'Dockery & Son' and other poems of his that express how death is inevitable could illuminate some of the ideas in this poem. Although there are similarites between Larkin's poems and this poem, I do definitely feel that Abse is much more personal with his writing than Larkin. For example, the speaker of 'A Winter Visit' is going on a walk with his frail mother and is telling the reader his own worries making his poems appear more intimate than Larkin's in that sense because Larkin's speakers tend to observe other people's feelings and experiences and distances himself.