A Scene from Married Life - Dannie Abse

From this poem we then see a sudden difference to how Abse talks about his wife to the audience. Through this poem we see that this really is a different side to what we see from couples and therefore fits into the title well. With having the title named, "A Scene from Married Life" we see that this is one side that hardly anyone can see behind all the smiles and laughs. This poem is about an argument Abse and his wife have had and fits in well with the title due to the fact that it is one of many scenes within someones marriage.
From this poem we see that they were trying to get back at one another through the phrase, "fast barbed words that made the other squirm and fed flushed indignatiom, verbel revenge". From this we see that they were both trying to hurt each other and both wanted revenge due to this argument. Abse portrays the notion that there is no love when they are trying to fight, but merely greed for each one is trying to make the other more hurt then what they feel. It is a game of greed towards these partners. We also see a similar come into the poem through the second stanza which implies to us that their marriage is dying, "a dead bird eaten by the early worm". Abse has twisted the usual saying of the early bird catches the worm and placed into a different aspect. From this we see that the higher status (the bird) has fallen and is now being eaten by the much weaker prey of the worm. From this we get the impression that Abse has regretted his actions and now feels like this. He is the dead bird and regrets all what he has said to his wife but appears as though she has not.
Abse then goes on to talking about the sea and how dangerous and frustrated it appears. We see the notion of him comparing to his wife with the words "fussy sea" and we see that he is describing how he and his wife is through the similarities in nature. Larkin does this within various poems and a good example of this would be Here. Within that poem we see that Larkin explains the use of the scenery to tell us the true fact of human nature and how unprepared we are for anything throughout. Both poets express their opinions within nature but with different meaning. Larkin uses nature to inform us that we are never certain on what we are going to do next, while Abse coninues to be a far more personal poet to us with writing about the link he has between him and his wife through nature.
With Abse also talking about the film we get two different possible meanings that are from the poem. One would be that Abse feels as though the argument is all a natural process within any married life and like a movie, will continue on as though nothing has occured and hope for a hollywood ending. The other meaning would be the fact that it takes time to heal and like how a movie takes time to be made, Abse' marriage will take time to recover from this argument.
From within the final stanza we see the thought that what ever happens to him and his wife, they will continue to fight no matter what. With having Abse sit at his desk and can hear the children instead of his own writing, we see that no matter how much he tries to block it out, fights will always occur between the married couple. It is a natural process but has a negative side towards it.
Another poem that would link to this by Larkin would Talking In Bed for it portrays the notion of a couple not doing anything so neither one can get hurt. Both poets express the notion of a couple finding it hard to talk without hurting the other partner and therefore show us a common link.