Return to Cardiff - Dannie Abse

From within the first stanza we see that Abse is portraying to us the memories that Cardiff has to him and we see a typical teenager coming from the imagery used.
As we continue through the poem we begin to see that all of the surroundings that Abse was once familiar with have no become unnatural and have an eerie sense due to Abse feeling uncertain of them as he continues back home. We can see that Abse is recollecting the memories that he had within Cardiff and as he returns back we see that all is unclear for time has gone by alot quicker then the persona has expected making everything change a lot more.
From within this we see that things have changed through the phrases, "the mile-wide Taff now a stream" and "the castle not as in some black, gothic dream, but a decent sprawl, a joker's toy facade". From both these phrases we see that time has changed his opinions and views on these things and an example of this would be from the description as a castle. From what appears to be something dark and eerie and a common place for teenagers to hang around at night is now changed into a place where we get the impression he laughs at. We see a slight piece of humour come into the poem with "a joker's toy facade" and see that he laughs at the appearance of it now compared to how he thought of it before.
As we move on through the poem we then see a different memory of a loved one being shown and we therefore see a reoccurance from his past being shown. From the description of his grandfather being, "the white, enormous face" and "suddenly aghast with certain news" we see that his grandfather is now dead and we get the impression as though he has not returned to Cardiff ever since his grandfather was alive. This is presented to appear as a shock to the reader through the description due to the words "aghast" and "white".
As we continue through this poem we see that he continues to portray various images to the reader to show us how much time has changed the place he knew very well.
Poems that link in well to this would be Here, Dockery and Son and also Send No Money.
The poem Here by Larkin links into Abse due to how they both have the theme of nature and place and we see that Larkin and Abse both do this within these poems. Also within the poem Dockery and Son the audience can see the notion of time repeating itself and how similar the next generation is. For example within Dockery and Son we see that Larkin's friend Dockery use to go to university with him and now over time Dockery's son is within the same state. In Abse' poem we see that Abse is recalling on walking down these streets when he was younger and the key notion within the final stanza, of which we can imagine the past and the present Abse walking down the same street and passing one another. This then links onto the final poem by Larkin known as Send No Money. I found this poem to link into Return to Cardiff because it showed the key consept of time going by very quickly. Larkin shows us that he has gone by without noticing how much he has observed and watched things instead of getting on with his life and has now come to realise that he is already half way through. Within Abse' poem we see that there is a sudden shock of reality when he is returning to Cardiff and the thought of how different everything is as well as himself too. He has also changed since he has last been there not only stating that his surroundings have changed, but he has as well making him seem unfamiliar to a great deal of people.