A Wall - Dannie Abse

From looking at this short poem we are able to instantly see that this poem would link to Here by Larkin due to the description of a place. From within the first stanza it portrays how useless and meaningless this wall is and is shown with the line, "it begins for no reason, ends no place". there is no purpose for this wall and the original significance of this wall is no longer there for it has been lost with everything else over time. This is also a link to the poems An Arundel Tomb by Larkin and also At Caerleon by Abse. Although the audience is unsure of what its origianl purpose was, we are able to see that within the society is it placed into now that it is out of place and context from everything else surrounding it.
 From the second stanza we are able to see that the use of the line "Don't say this wall is useless" can inform us of a purpose found for the wall. Abse is portraying to the readers that everything has a purpose no matter what it is or how old it is. Larkin however does not state this within his poems, he is far more negative to the world and what occurs within it whilst Abse seems to be always looking for a positive aspect on whatever it is.
As we see this wall is really a home for nature and can be seen due to the words "golden lichens" and "butterflies". There is a habitat occuring within this wall meaning a sense of life instead of refering to death in the stanza before. The wall portrayed the notion of death due to how it could of been the remains of history and therefore held some status of death within it. Abse however has changed this notion within the second stanza and provided us the evidence to see that it is really holding life. This wall is not useless and we see that the use of the word "golden" is placed as shinning and royal. From this we can imagine this habitat to be a great deal of importance to the creatures that live within it and they feel like this is their haven. We also see that it is used by larger animals and not just small insects with how "huddling sheep" use this wall as shelter. This is refered to as now and we see that this wall is a part of the landscape and the scene has absorbed the wall into the picture. As we have already seen the poems that link to A Wall would be An Arundel Tomb, Here and First Sights. Here would link to this poem due to the description of a place and An Arundel Tomb would due to the true purpose being lost and the remains of it left the audience to wonder. Finally First sights would link into this poem due to how it goes on about life and the poet thinking with a philosophical ending that sees a point to nature.