The poem...
When, like a burglar, I entered dark
the ground-floor flat, I don't know why I sat
in the dark, in my father's armchair,
or why, suddenly, with surgeon's pocket-torch
I hosed the objects of the living room
with its freakish light.
Living room, did I say? Dying room, rather.
So much dust, mother! Outraged, the awakened
empty fruit bowl; the four-legged table
in a fright; the vase that yawned hideously;
the pattern that ran up the curtain, took flight
to the long, wriggling, photophobic crack
in the ceiling.
Omnipotent, I returned to the dark,
sat sightless in the room that was out
of breath and listened,
that summer night,
to Nothing.
Not a fly on the Z side of the window pane,
not one, comforting, diminutive sound
when the silence calmed, became profound.
Commentary...
I assume that the speaker of this poem is Abse as he talks of his "surgeon's pocket-torch" and we know Abse was a doctor. However I will just refer to the speaker rather than calling him Abse.
In this poem, the speaker visits the "ground-floor flat" where his now dead mother and father lived. The speaker said he was "like a burglar", suggesting he feels that he shouldn't be there and is doing something wrong by doing so. Also, when breaking into a house, burglars are often in an unfamiliar place, this possibly suggests that without his parents inside it, the flat felt unfamiliar to him. Maybe he felt like he shouldn't be in the flat because there's no longer any life there which makes the place which once felt like a home, incomplete and creates an uneasiness in the speaker.
The speaker doesn't know "why" he is behaving in certain ways, such as sitting in his "father's armchair" in the "dark", or why he "hosed" "freakish light" onto the "objects of the living room". The speaker not knowing why he is doing certain things suggests that the feelings created by the loss of parents is like no others he has felt before so he doesn't know what do. Perhaps he sat in his father's armchair because it was a familiar place and a particular place in the flat where he remembered his father being regularly, possibly suggesting the speaker is feeling nostalgic and misses his father and the times when he was alive. Towards the end of the first stanza where the speaker is behaving like a surgeon, it suggests that because the speaker doesn't know how to react to his feelings about losing his parents, he retreats back to doing something he does know how to do which is being a surgeon, perhaps the unfamiliarality frightens him. Surgeons have to look at the inside of the body very closely, so the sights surgeons see, for some could be very gruesome, in context with the poem this could suggrst that what the speaker was seeing in his deceased parents' living room was difficult for him to look at. With the knowledge that Abse was a doctor, we can assume that he has had to see things in a somewhat "freakish light", which was "hosed" suggesting the light was so powerful and precisely aimed that every minor detail was shown making it appear "freakish" and maybe blinding. The speaker doing this to the living room implies that he was seeing every single detail of the room, which perhaps he hadn't noticed before. What the speaker sees in the living room being in a "freakish light" suggests that the experience almost doesn't seem real to him. Also that it is only with an extremely powerful light that things are seen as "freakish" suggesting that imperfections are always present but only noticed when really focused on which is maybe a good thing as perhaps the speaker never noticed the imperfections before because he was too focused on his family. This suggests that the speaker feels that it's his parents that made the flat feel like a home and without them it feels very strange and uncomfortable. The main themes I think are created in the first stanza are loss of parents, loneliness and nostalgia.
The speaker says that the "living room" is more like the "dying room", suggesting that when in there, he can only think about the death of his parents. The objects in the room are personified, saying they were "outraged...awakened...in a fright", this emphasises how long they have been left alone without being used, that when there is somebody else in the room they're shocked. Also, the objects "took flight", this personfication suggests that it is very unusual for there to be a person in the flat, so unusual that if the objects were alive, they'd run away. The room was "out of breath", again suggesting that it's lifeless. The speaker "returned to the dark", possbily because what he saw in the living made him feel uncomfortable. I think maybe the speaker is finding the death of his parents hard to believe because he thinks of the "summer night" and contrasts it witth the "Nothing" he sees now. I imagine that the summer night was a memory with his parents that was full of happiness and life, which is very different to how he sees what remains of his parents' life in their living room. This makes me think of how sometimes it doesn't seem comprehendable that all the memories in a person's mind and the feelings they've felt in their life can so simply disappear when they die and I think that this may be what the speaker was thinking when they contrasted "summer night" with "nothing". This idea makes me think of Larkin's poem 'Ambulances' where death is the "solving emptiness that lies just under all we do" and how it is so "blank and true", and maybe this is a frightening idea for the speaker of Abse's poem. The "silence" was "profound" in the living room of the speaker's parents, reemphasising how uncomfortable and strange the speaker felt being in the family home when his parents are dead.
The Larkin poems which I think link best with this poem are 'Home Is So Sad' and 'Reference Back' because of the theme of losing a parent. As well as Mr Bleaney because the poems are based in one room and they both show how the objects in a person's home can show how the person lives/lived.
I assume that the speaker of this poem is Abse as he talks of his "surgeon's pocket-torch" and we know Abse was a doctor. However I will just refer to the speaker rather than calling him Abse.
In this poem, the speaker visits the "ground-floor flat" where his now dead mother and father lived. The speaker said he was "like a burglar", suggesting he feels that he shouldn't be there and is doing something wrong by doing so. Also, when breaking into a house, burglars are often in an unfamiliar place, this possibly suggests that without his parents inside it, the flat felt unfamiliar to him. Maybe he felt like he shouldn't be in the flat because there's no longer any life there which makes the place which once felt like a home, incomplete and creates an uneasiness in the speaker.
The speaker doesn't know "why" he is behaving in certain ways, such as sitting in his "father's armchair" in the "dark", or why he "hosed" "freakish light" onto the "objects of the living room". The speaker not knowing why he is doing certain things suggests that the feelings created by the loss of parents is like no others he has felt before so he doesn't know what do. Perhaps he sat in his father's armchair because it was a familiar place and a particular place in the flat where he remembered his father being regularly, possibly suggesting the speaker is feeling nostalgic and misses his father and the times when he was alive. Towards the end of the first stanza where the speaker is behaving like a surgeon, it suggests that because the speaker doesn't know how to react to his feelings about losing his parents, he retreats back to doing something he does know how to do which is being a surgeon, perhaps the unfamiliarality frightens him. Surgeons have to look at the inside of the body very closely, so the sights surgeons see, for some could be very gruesome, in context with the poem this could suggrst that what the speaker was seeing in his deceased parents' living room was difficult for him to look at. With the knowledge that Abse was a doctor, we can assume that he has had to see things in a somewhat "freakish light", which was "hosed" suggesting the light was so powerful and precisely aimed that every minor detail was shown making it appear "freakish" and maybe blinding. The speaker doing this to the living room implies that he was seeing every single detail of the room, which perhaps he hadn't noticed before. What the speaker sees in the living room being in a "freakish light" suggests that the experience almost doesn't seem real to him. Also that it is only with an extremely powerful light that things are seen as "freakish" suggesting that imperfections are always present but only noticed when really focused on which is maybe a good thing as perhaps the speaker never noticed the imperfections before because he was too focused on his family. This suggests that the speaker feels that it's his parents that made the flat feel like a home and without them it feels very strange and uncomfortable. The main themes I think are created in the first stanza are loss of parents, loneliness and nostalgia.
The speaker says that the "living room" is more like the "dying room", suggesting that when in there, he can only think about the death of his parents. The objects in the room are personified, saying they were "outraged...awakened...in a fright", this emphasises how long they have been left alone without being used, that when there is somebody else in the room they're shocked. Also, the objects "took flight", this personfication suggests that it is very unusual for there to be a person in the flat, so unusual that if the objects were alive, they'd run away. The room was "out of breath", again suggesting that it's lifeless. The speaker "returned to the dark", possbily because what he saw in the living made him feel uncomfortable. I think maybe the speaker is finding the death of his parents hard to believe because he thinks of the "summer night" and contrasts it witth the "Nothing" he sees now. I imagine that the summer night was a memory with his parents that was full of happiness and life, which is very different to how he sees what remains of his parents' life in their living room. This makes me think of how sometimes it doesn't seem comprehendable that all the memories in a person's mind and the feelings they've felt in their life can so simply disappear when they die and I think that this may be what the speaker was thinking when they contrasted "summer night" with "nothing". This idea makes me think of Larkin's poem 'Ambulances' where death is the "solving emptiness that lies just under all we do" and how it is so "blank and true", and maybe this is a frightening idea for the speaker of Abse's poem. The "silence" was "profound" in the living room of the speaker's parents, reemphasising how uncomfortable and strange the speaker felt being in the family home when his parents are dead.
The Larkin poems which I think link best with this poem are 'Home Is So Sad' and 'Reference Back' because of the theme of losing a parent. As well as Mr Bleaney because the poems are based in one room and they both show how the objects in a person's home can show how the person lives/lived.
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