Elergy for Dylan Thomas - Dannie Abse

This poem has the link towards Larkin of being an Elergy which suggests to the audience the link to For Sydney Bechet once more.
From within the first stanza we get the notion that death has occured of the use of something is no longer available due to the words "smoke-laden town". From this we get the impression that what was once there is no longer due to it being filled with "smoke".
From the next stanza we begin to see that Dylan Thomas is truly dead and the impression that it was his happiness to die. We get the sense that he might of been a drunk due to the words "the whisky-meadows" and that this could of been the result of his death. Another Larkin that would link to this would be Self's the Man for we see that the man has no freedom due to the choice he made of being married and having children. Larkin however placed it as symphathy and we get the notion from his poem that the man's freedom has been completely killed just like Dylan Thomas.
From the word "disinherited" we see that Dylan was not seen as a worthy person to take on responsibilities due to his constant battle with drinking. From talking about the butterflies we also see that he is a constant drunk and is similar to a butterfly due to how they appear to fly around. It also mentions his "half-buried heart" which could suggest that while he was alive his heart was dying due to the drink but also to how fragile the heart truly is to anything and has the same appearance towards a butterfly.
We also see that he was missed when he died and we see that he speaks of "collected legends" suggesting to us that he told tales and stories to people. From this we are able to see that Abse is telling us that the tears that fall down people's faces are not from the stories but of this mans' death.
Throughout the remains of the poem we see that Dylan Thomas was a great importance within Abse life and was strongly influenced by his work. The final stanzas depict to the audience that he was important due to how he uses the words "nighingale dark nor in the canary light". From this we get the impression that there is hope represented in both. "nightingale dark" could link to the fact of how the soldiers had the lady of the lamp to help them through the night showing us this resemblance of hope within the dark and is also shown with the use of the light. From all this we see that his death was sudden with the line, "the yolk broke in his head" and finally we see that his death was quick as it ends the stanza of the poem.
Another Larkin poem that would link into this as I have said before would be For Sydney Bechet due to how it portrays the sense of a memorable character. Although people may be unaware of this character we know that Dylan Thomas had a great influence on Abse making him a memorable person to the writer.