Postcard to His Wife

Dannie Abse

Summary

• Remembering his wife and how he is sad

because of her death.

• His love for her is strong even though she is

gone.

• Shows memories of the things they used to do

together.

Themes

• Death/Loss

• Memories

• Love – undying

• Nature - seasons

Poetic Features

• Caesuras an imperatives at the beginning of Stanza 2 –emphasise how much he misses her – refers to the things he has noticed and felt now she’s gone. “So come home. The bed’s too big! Make excuses.”

• "and the dulcamara of memory" -> use of Welsh (his heritage/dialect)

• "and the Venus de Milo is only stone" -> believed to depict the Greek Goddess of love and beauty, Aphrodite - but it's only stone to Abse - still and cold - Absebelieved that without his wife that life had no meaning

• “whim”, “twisting” and “wild” -> adventures together –remembering how they used to be.

Interpretations

• Stanza 3 - “Come home!” - the structure - the exclamation marks and the emotions shown make it really realistic - like he is calling out for his wife to come back to him - begging her feels a void –empty in his heart.

• Stanza 3 -> he would be perfectly happy in just his wife's company and the nature around: “cornfields”, “hedges” and “roses”

• Stanza 4 -> “blessed” to be together if they could be -> "sand dunes and blessed, mimc the old gods" - act how Gods said the happy way to be holy was heavenly love.

• Excessively devoted to his wife -> unhealthy maybe? - still in mourning.

• Absence can't make the heart grow fonder because it's not humanly possible to love anymore, more than he loved his wife - his everything -> he has undying and irrevocable love for his wife is no longer alive

Links to Larkin

• Abse -> writes from own experiences

• Larkin -> writes from out observer's perspective (of other people's lives)

• Connects to Larkin's “Love Songs in Age”, “An Arundel Tomb” and “Wild Oats”

• Love Songs in Age – memories and the absence of a loved one.

• An Arundel Tomb – undying love

• Wild Oats – looking back at past relationships (Larkin does it in more of a problematic way and Abse does it in a way loving way – a way to remember his wife)