Annotated poem for WJEC AS English Literature Revision - Larkin and Abse LT1

1. At the Concert
Dannie Abse

2. What’s the poem about?
• The persona in this poem is at a concert, however he does not enjoy
it at all and is completely bored by it.
• During this concert his mind completely drifts, and instead he thinks
about human life and how it is all meaningless and pointless.

3. First Stanza
• ‘Only yesterday while walking’ – very beginning of the poem, suggesting
that the persona is not thinking about the concert. The title of the poem is
‘At the Concert’, and so there is some expectation that this poem will be
about the concert or music, however the start of the poem is set in the
past tense and describes him ‘walking’.
• ‘its jaws moved sideways, munching over and over’ – description of the
sheep, its jaw is moving ‘sideways’, ‘over and over’. This could be a
metaphor for life, suggesting that we never make any progress, that we are
constantly moving sideways over and over instead of moving forward.
• ‘The same old grass. The same old flavour’ – this again could be a
metaphor for life, the persona suggesting that life is merely repetition, that
we spend our lives doing the same thing again and again, and that we lack
enthusiasm to change

4. Second Stanza
• ‘It stood utterly still’ – this isn’t expected, the horse is an animal and
so we don’t expect it to be standing still. This relates to the ‘pretty
Miss’ in the third stanza who sits ‘motionless’, also frozen. This
suggests that we are animals too, and that like the horse, it is
completely unnatural for us to be motionless. This could imply that
our lives do not bring us any purpose or meaning, instead of
constantly moving forward the way animals should, we are stuck in
lives that bring us no chances of hope or happiness.

5. Third Stanza
• ‘She’ll sit in Row G unawakened by the conductor’s sudden convulsion’ –
this could suggest that she is captivated by the music and that she is
entranced by it, however this could also suggest that despite the ‘sudden
convulsion’ that is quite dramatic, she remains ‘unawakened’, suggesting
that she is completely overcome with boredom. This could also relate to
people living life waiting for something exciting and amazing to happen,
always expecting something spectacular to happen, and yet when
something does happen, we miss it and let it pass us by.
• ‘Prince’s kiss’ – implies we are always waiting for our perfect fairy tale
ending, and yet in reality they never come, the perfect happy ending never
really comes true, and that the fantasy that we all aspire doesn’t really
represent our lives.

6. Fourth Stanza
• ‘And how’s your life? Static too?’ – the use of rhetorical questions makes
the reader question their own lives, making us realise that we never make
any progress in our own lives and that we too are static and frozen like the
animals in the beginning of the poem.
• ‘Do you wait as I do, numb, for something to happen until it happens?’ –
suggests we are reluctant to make changes, we are constantly waiting for
the next big thing to happen in our lives, and then when they do happen,
we don’t appreciate them.
• ‘If so, join the queue. It stretches all the way to the Old People’s Home’ –
suggests that all of our lives lead to old age and death, and that instead of
making the best of our lives and making the best use of every moment, we
all just queue up waiting for death to come, living pointless lives.

7. Fifth Stanza
• ‘as I pretend to listen’- suggesting that the persona is not really
enjoying the music or the concert, that his mind is in a completely
different place.
• ‘yawn-fecund’ – fecund meaning to be fertile or capable of producing
an abundance of offspring, and so poet uses this juxtaposition to
imply that this concert is actually yawn inducing, suggesting that the
persona is not enjoying the concert at all and it is boring him
completely.

8. Sixth Stanza
• ‘What else can I do except try not to cough’ - suggests the
awkwardness that the persona feels being at the concert, that he is
completely uncomfortable being there
• ‘I wish I was there’ – the persona is wishing that he was almost his
cat, who is sitting in his chair at home, he would much rather be at
home.

9. Seventh Stanza
• ‘the pear tree blossoming a masquerade’ – implies that even nature is
not being real, instead of just simply blossoming, its in ‘masquerade’,
suggesting that even the tree is trying to be something its not. This
could link to humans not being real and not achieving their fill
potential and doing what they really want, but instead we follow
routine because we are not truly free.
• ‘No wonder now Miss is clapping too and someone shouts ‘Bravo.’’ –
this is anti-climax, we expect some sort of conclusion, but instead we
are just given the end of the concert, it has finally ended. This ending
is very final, we are given no conclusion from the persona, and this
could again be a metaphor for life, that life can end very quickly and
simply, and without any real meaning or conclusion.

10. Links to Larkin
• Dockery and Son – ‘life is first boredom, then fear. Whether or not we use it, it
goes’, links to the idea of life being pointless and having no meaning.
• For Sydney Bechet – different from this poem by Abse, Larkin suggests his love for
music whereas in At the Concert, Abse makes clear that music is not important to
him, and that the concert actually made him bored.
• Mr Bleaney – ‘having no more to show than one hired box’, similar to Abse as
suggesting that we do not do anything great or important with our lives and we
just waste away until we die.
• Ignorance – ‘yet spend our loves on imprecisions’, similar to Abse as Larkin
suggesting we spend our time on pointless things that have no real meaning or
importance, we are not completely sure of anything and we don’t take up the
chances we are given.
• Nothing To Be Said – ‘life is slow dying’, similar to the old people’s home, and that
we all advance towards death, and that all life is is just inevitable death.

11. Exam Questions
• 2009 Summer – What connections have you found between the ways
in which Larkin and Abse write about death?
• 2011 Winter – What connections have you found between the ways
in which Larkin and Abse write about the meaning of life?
• 2014 Winter – ‘Larkin’s poetry reveals a preoccupation with death’. In
light of this statement, compare the ways in which Larkin and Abse
write about death in their poems.