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

1. Terrible Angels by
Dannie Abse
Sarah Boon

2. The Plot
• In this poem, Abse starts off with a memory of what his father told him
as a bedtime story when he was a little boy about angels. However,
before he mentions the angels, he shows his son [Abse] his old war
medals.
• In the second stanza, we see these that these angels sent by God have
been corrupt by the war of man. They become delighted in the pain and
anguish of the falling soldier and even go so fara as to no longer remain
invisible like they were in the first stanza, but become seen, and steal
weapons from the dead and join in with the glory of the war.
• The final stanza, only two lines, shoes us that these angels have sent
Abse's father mad, making him no longer mentally healthy.

3. Themes
• War
• Effect of violence on the mental well being of a
person

4. The Angels
• The representation of the angels may be the soldiers themselves. When they
left to fight as an army and believed they were doing it for Queen and Country,
"that elite and puissant expedition from God".
• Like the men, the angels went out, unscarred by the cruelness of war, having an
"invisible presence". They stayed with nature, being around horses and birds,
but then war came.
• Abse writes "war coarsens (he said) even the genteel angels.". Following this
line we see how the war has ruined the true purpose of the angels. they have
become consumed by the war of man. "soldier's prayers and soldiers
screams/thrilled the cold angels". Men are dying around the angles, but instead
of helping them, they become entranced in the violence of man and wish to
take part in it. They changed who they were meant to be and became "true
facsimiles of men." They copied man's corrupt and damaged soul, being "bold
and bloodthirsty".
Puissant:
French for
mighty or
strong
Facsimiles:
exact copies
of the
originals

5. The Angels continued
• The angels are referred to as "the angels of Mons". The battle of Mons was the first
battle of WW1, fought by the British on European soil for the first time since the battle
of Waterloo.
• Finally, in the final stanza, we see the damage that the angels have done to Abse's
father. "(My father, invalided home, was told/he knew more about angels than was
healthy.)"
• Abse's father has been kicked out of the military (invalided), which may be due to the
fact that he has discovered the true meaning of war and found it to be a foolish venture
and in order to protect their other men, they sent him home before he could pass it on.
• However it also refer directly to an injury he got, whether it was mentally or physically,
it scarred him, causing him to receive an honorable discharge. But even though he didn't
see the war to end, he still still felt that bit of pride for what part he did play in the
great war. This pride is shown in the quote "his war medals/their pretty coloured
ribbons" These medals represent the pride and victory felt by Abse's father.

6. Poetic features
• Alliteration: 'bold and bloodthirsty' - the letter 'b' creates a sharp
emphasis on the words, making them stand out more with more
effect. This causes them to seem much more harsh words.
• Repetition: 'circle around and around' - the repetition of the word
'around' almost makes you dizzy, causing you to become immersed
in the poem.
• Paradox: 'Stealthily visible' - when moving stealthily you are trying
not to be seen, but the angelsa are being seen, thus creating a
paradox.

7. Connection with Larkin
• The main Larkin poem that Terrible Angels links to is MCMXIV.
• They both take about WW1 and how all the men that were
involved were affected. "Never such innocence/Never before or
since"
• These two poems show us how war can not only corrupt a soul like
in Terrible Angels, but can corrupt an entire society as shown in
Larkin's MCMXIV.

8. Past Exam Questions
• 2009 Summer - part 1
• 2010 Summer - part 2
• 2014 Winter - part 2