At The Concert - Dannie Abse

From within this poem we see that the first two stanzas are describing the motionless animals that Abse has seen. From this we get the impression of these animals, the sheep and the horse, to be bored and act like they are frozen in time. This then links onto his next line where he is explaining just how this women in the same row as him in the concert is frozen in time whilst listening to the music. She is absorbed in the music and listens to it as though her life depends on it. From this we are able to make the link from this poem to a Larkin poem with the theme of music. Some of Larkins poems such as Reference Back and Broadcast are about music but each have a different meaning to them. The one i find that suits to this poem the most would be Broadcast with how it explores the music that is within the concert. Although Abse is doing the same with explaining how people are fixed within this music and we see this from Larkin with how silent the room appears until the roar of applause at the end, we see that the difference to these poems is how Larkin is showing us a specific girl he feels connected to whilst Abse is trying to connect with everyone due to all the questions he is asking the audience.
From within this stanza and we see this bundle of questions thrown at us is portraying the notion that we will always have questions untill we are old and weak with his line stating on the old peoples home. From this we can also make the link to Larkin with the theme of time going past us and the thought of unanswered questions from the poem Send No Money. This link stating to us about time being limited is shown through both poets and we see that Abse is asking questions to the reader similar to how Larkin does at times. Throughout the rest of the poem we see Abse pretending to listening to this music but is really fixed on other matters and thoughts that are occuring within his head. We then get the final stanza creating an image of his cat sitting peacefully in silence but still shows a dull and boring setting to the readers. This links into the animals that appeared like statues in the beginning of the poem but this time the animal is more relaxed and at peace with time wasting by. We finally see that Abse would rather do the same and watch the tree within his garden through his window. From this we see the similarity that he does not mind time to go past him and we see the link towards him and Larkin with how he relates to the audience as being an observer in this poem, like how Larkin does in The Whitsun Weddings.