At the Concert - Dannie Abse

The poem...

Only yesterday while walking on Ogmore cliffs
one listless sheep gave me the yellow eye.
Its jaws moved sideways, munching over and over.
The same old grass. Same old flavour.

I strolled inland and saw the big brown horse
in Lol's sloping field. It stood utterly still.
When I returned it hadn't moved an inch.
It must have been as bored as any statue.

And here's pretty Miss next to me, motionless.
She'll sit in Row G unawakened by
the conductor's sudden convulsion till
the very last note like a Prince's kiss.

And how's your life? Static too? Do you wait,
as I do, numb, for something to happen
until it happens? If so, join the queue.
It stretches all the way to the Old People's Home.

I'm thinking all this, I mean about the sheep
and the horse, about you and me
as I pretend to listen to Klump's new free-form
yawn-fecund 'Machine of Dissonances'.

What else can I do except try not to cough
while my cat back home squats in my chair
unmolested, deigning to blink now and then -
at the soundless blank TV screen? I wish

I was there, staring through the garden window
at the pear tree blossoming a masquerade
of now, an epiphany. No wonder now
Miss is clapping too and someone shouts 'Bravo.'

Commentary...

While walking along Ogmore cliffs, the speaker noticed a "listless sheep" with its jaws moving "sideways", "munching over and over" on "the same old grass" with the "same old flavour". This could be metaphorical for the lack of enthusiasm in people for change, they'd rather do the same thing everyday, perhaps because doing something different can be scary. The sheep's jaw moving "sideways" could be the speaker metaphorically suggesting that if we never allow change in our life then we will never move forward/progress in life, instead we'll just move side to side doing the same thing. The second stanza continues to describe the sedentary lifestyle of the animals the speaker sees on his walk which could again be metaphorical for how people often stick to the same routine of life or aim for it, typically of being born, childhood, falling in love, getting a good job, buying a house, getting married, have children, dying and then the cycle begins again with the children. The horse was as "bored as any statue", the statue could suggest that often people observe other people's lives and watch the world pass by without realising their life is also going by.

The third stanza shifts to the "pretty Miss" at the concert, she too is sitting "motionless" waiting for something to happen. However, she is "unawakened by the conductor's sudden convulsion" which is portrayed by the speaker as quite dramatic, this suggests that often people are living life waiting for something exciting and big to happen, but when the opportunity arises for it to happen, because it may not happen in the expected way, it's missed. The speaker may also be suggesting that people should appreciate the more simple things in life, that to be happy we may not have the best of everything in life, we should just make the best of everything we do have. The speaker says that to wait for "something to happen until it happens" you''ll be waiting all the way to the "Old People's Home", implying that we'll die before things happen if we just wait for them to happen without actively doing something to make it happen. I think the speaker is suggesting that for positive life changes to happen, the individual has to make a change in some way.

From within the final stanza the reader knows that the speaker would rather be at home with his cat and "staring through the garden window" than at the concert. Him preferring to be alone in his house than at the concert with other people suggests that in this poem there is a theme of being content alone which links to Larkin's poems 'Here' especially and 'The Importance of Elsewhere'. Also, I think because the speaker wishing to be at his house wouldn't be progressing in his life by doing so, but staying still and the woman at the concert was "motionless" suggests that a lot of the things we do to relax aren't going to make our lives progress, but maybe that's okay. Maybe it's not a waste of time to not actively do anything if the time spent is enjoyed.

Larkin poem's which I think this poem links best with are 'Here' and 'The Importance of Elsewhere' because of the speaker appreciating being alone and realising that aloneness doesn't always have to result in loneliness. Also,  'Broadcast' and 'Reference Back because of the theme of music. Also, I think this poem links quite well to 'The Whitsun Weddings' because the speaker seems content with observing the world pass by.