The document provides analysis of two poems: Philip Larkin's "As Bad as a Mile" and Dannie Abse's "In Llandough Hospital". It summarizes the themes, imagery, and poetic devices used in each poem. It also compares the two poems, noting similarities in their pessimistic tones and uses of personification, as well as differences like Larkin focusing on a literal event while Abse conveys deeper thoughts about life and death as his father is dying in the hospital.

1. As Bad As A Mile

2. What happens in the poem??
Larkin’s persona has eaten an
apple and is trying to throw the
core into a basket, but keeps
missing. Although he cannot get
it into the basket, he keeps
picking it up and trying again.

3. Bigger ideas and themes
Failure – Although the persona keeps trying to get it into
the bucket, he cannot hit the target
Determination – Although you might fail, you should keep
going until you get it right
Religious imagery – The story of Adam and Eve – they ate
the apple even though God forbid them from doing so, and
they were banished from the Garden of Eden. So, this could
be saying that taking the “forbidden fruit” or giving into
temptation can cause failure and irreversible effects

4. “Watching the shied core”
The word “shied” has different meanings:
• Past participle of shy (so being shy/afraid of Larkin’s
persona?
• Avoiding doing or being involved with something due
to nervousness or lack of confidence (links to theme
of failure – core is afraid of not going in the basket,
so afraid of failure)
• To fling or throw something at a target – this is the
literal meaning as the persona is throwing the apple
core at the basket

5. “Striking the basket, skidding across the floor”
Poetic devices:
• Use of “s” sound in “striking” and “skidding”
• Onomatopoeic sounds in “skidding”
• Repetition of “s” sound suggests a routine, or
the action being repeated

6. “Shows less and less of luck, and more and more
Of failure..”
• Repetition of “less” and “more” for emphasis
• “less” used twice, again like a routine, with
the chance of success decreasing each time
• “more” used twice, creates the feeling of
wanting to give up when you don’t succeed
• “more” is usually used for a positive meaning
(e.g. more money = more happiness) but is
used as a negative here

7. “Of failure spreading back up the arm”
• “up the arm” – like a heart attack. As he
continues to fail the persona begins to take it
more personally
• The heart is the most important part of the
body, so if the heart fails, the body fails
• The persona is letting the failure affect him
emotionally and psychologically, so this then
creates a bigger failure

8. “Earlier and earlier, the unraised hand calm”
• Going back in time, before Larkin had even
eaten the apple – “unbitten”
• “unraised hand calm” – he hasn’t tried to
throw it yet, so he isn’t feeling frustrated or
like a failure
• Not afraid of failure, the possibility of success
is still there

9. “The apple unbitten in the palm”
• Possibilities – when you are young, you have more
opportunities whereas in later life you are more
limited
• Pessimism – in hindsight, you can see that you have
failed, so may be reluctant or hesitant to carry on
doing something
• Getting older – the apple being eaten is like getting
older, more is taken away (both physically and
metaphorically) and you become weaker, until
eventually you are a dead core
• Throwing the core away is like throwing a life away

10. What is Larkin trying to say?
• Life and death – you only live once, so don’t
be afraid to take an opportunity and be
ambitious
• Determination – even if you fail, you should
keep trying
• Age – when you are young, you are ambitious
and feel like you can do anything. In old age
there are some things you can’t do and see
yourself as a failure because of it.

11. Other Larkin poems
• Dockery and Son – life choices and
questioning your own success/failures
• Whitsun Weddings – feeling of being young,
having your whole life ahead of you, but also
Larkin’s persona feeling like a failure because
he’s not married/with children

12. In Llandough
Hospital

13. What is the poem about?
Abse’s father is in hospital, dying from
an unknown illness. Abse switches
between tenses, describing the
present as well as past memories, and
philosophising about life and death.

14. Themes/Bigger ideas
• Night-time/Stars – Abse uses a lot of sky and stars imagery
throughout the poem. As night is at the end of the day, this
could be a metaphor for the end of his father’s life.
• Life and death – His father is in a lot of pain but isn’t afraid of
death, whereas Abse seems to be
• Auschwitz – “he’s thin as Auschwitz in that bed” and “at the
camps of death”
• Historical figures – Socrates (Athenian philosopher) and
Winkelried (Swiss national hero)
• Failure – Larkin experiences literal failure (“failure spreading
up the arm”) whereas Abse feels a failure because he cannot
save his dying father (“I, a doctor, beg a doctor”, “I plead”)

15. Similarities to Larkin
• Pessimistic tone – Larkin keeps trying to thrown the
apple core but continues to fail, Abse’s father is
about to die and he has become aware of his own
mortality
• Personification – Larkin’s apple is “unbitten in the
palm” (links to younger life, as though a person is
“unbitten”) and Abse’s night and death (“the
darkness”, “death makes victims”, “the night”)
• Switching between tenses – Larkin has before and
after eating the apple, Abse is in the present and has
memories from the time before

16. Differences to Larkin
• Larkin is more literal – on first reading the
poem doesn’t appear to have a deeper
meaning, whereas Abse contains almost inner
thoughts as well as a description of what is
happening in the present
• Abse, as a doctor, experiences life and death
everyday, although that of other people as
well as himself. Larkin also writes about life
and death, but only his own mortality