At Ogmore-by-Sea this August Evening - Dannie Abse

From this poem we can see that one of the key themes is the sense of loss with a loved one. From within this poem we see that the persona is talking of his father and we see that he is remembered through music. From the line, "who, self-taught, scraped upon an obstinate violin" we are able to see that the father was a very independant man and was pashionate towards teaching himself to play the violin. From the word "obstinate" we get the sense that he was stubborn and was unable to change his beliefs or views into various thoughts. From this we could get the interpretation that the father might of been bad at playing but continued nonetheless of everyones thoughts of his playing.
We also see the link of music within the poem Reference Back by Larkin which portrays to us the sense of loss being brought back by music. Both pieces show us that the memories of this is linked towards music, like the mother and son within Larkin's poem.
As we continue through the poem we see that music is a powerful and important piece throughout due to the line, "Such Power! The music summons night". From this the audience gets the impression that music is a controlling part of this personas life and we see that his father had a great deal to do with it. From within the second stanza we get the notion of death appearing due to the phrase, "death-boat black". From this we get the interpretation that there isn't any hope due to the use of the colour "black" and that this loss is perminant due to how everything has gone dark from the setting sun.
As we continue through the poem we see that the sense of loss is also portrayed once more. From the beginning lines of the stanza, "I see you jubilantly lit, an ordered carnival" we get the impression of his father being happy and with the use of the word "lit" we can suggest that he is now a ghost that has returned. From this line we see that he is no longer of this world but of another and shows us the loss that the persona has.
We then get the memory of a favourite place to the father and we see that it represents a positive view to the audience due to how the persona is remembering the memories they had there whilst fishing. This also has the notion of being negative also due to how the memory brings sadness to the persona.
From within the final stanza we see a great range of language used to show us another key theme of death, by the words, "his skeleton stands". Finally we get the line, "The ciaccona's over, the record played, there's nothing but the tumult of the sea". From this the audience can see that the memory of his father is still strong within the persona and with this line we see that once the piece has finished playing, the persona can only hear the busy waves of the sea below. From this we get the notion that even when the memory fades, nothing has changed and his father is still dead and it is all just a memory and that reality must continue on. This can also link into the poem Here by Philip Larkin due to how he ends his piece with standing near the sea. From this similarity between the two poems we see that reality is beginning to sink in as each of the persona's within the poems are now deciding what they shall do next within their lives.