Two Photographs - Dannie Abse

From this poem we see that their is a straight forward view on the appearance and thoughts of two women. One being Doris, the other, Annabella. Within this poem we begin to get various images of what the women look like and how there personalities differ from each other.
From reading Two Photographs we see that Annabella is the most feminine out of the two whilst Doris is more rebellious and does what she wants to do. From the first stanza stating, "How slim she appears, how vulnerable, Pretty" we see that this supports the notion of her being the more feminine out of the two women and the quotation stating, "How portly she looks, formidable, Handsome" we see that Doris has more male features than Annabella. From within the description we also see that these two women did not like each other, but Abse loves them both just as much.
As we continue through the poem we see that there is humour shown with the word "Cheese" and "Chalk" which implies to us that Abse' love is more real to these women whilst Larkin gets what he wants and does not truly love something/one.
Throughout the stanzas we also see the use of alliteration of the letter "D" and also the use of imagery to portray us these two women from two photographs.
Various poems that will link to this would be Home Is So Sad, Selfs the Man, Reference Back and Broadcast.
Self's the Man links to this poem due to how the two women are contrasted together in the third stanza. The words of their descriptions are placed in the listing device to come across as being far more powerful. Larkins poem of Reference Back is able to be similar with Abse with how their is something that triggers of the memory before. For Larkin it was the music sheets whilst in Abse it was the two photographs.
Home Is So Sad and also Mr Bleaney link in well due to how they two women are portrayed as when time and age occur within the poem. Both poems link in due to the description of an unloved house that is messy and alone.
Finally the poem Broadcast links into Abse' poem due to the philisophical ending we see from the final stanza. They are unaware of being observed later on in life and the phrase, "I never lived" implies to us that the dead are only able to exist if the people that knew and loved them can remember them stating the form of loss within the poem.
Altogether we see various similarities between the two poets and also see the difference of Larkin placing a more negative aspect of women unlike Abse who is more positive.