On the Coast Road - Abse

On the Coast Road is a poem about persona going on a walk. Within the first stanza a lot of personification is used to highlight to us the persona's past, especially his childhood. We also get the description of the 'ash-end of the year' which highlights to us that the season is Winter and also acts as symbolism for the declining nature of the persona, who is now aging in life. The personification of the weather highlights certain events within the persona's life. For example he mentions the 'bossy wind' and it 'summons' giving us the idea of a school teacher or wife, figures of people who have been and gone in his life, this is also used to highlight how much he has aged as a person. We are also given the concrete description of the 'choirs of ghosts' this really emphasises the sounds of the wind. This in turn links to the musical poems such as Broadcast and Sydney Bechet, these poems also express the aspect of sound.

In stanza two the persona mentions that this is the 'wrong weather' highlighting the fact that he has come out to be alone and isolated because no one will find him. This will give him a chance to think in the open and links well with the poem by Larkin 'Here'. We are also given the semantic field of childhood memories through 'bullied of course' this highlights his moments of childhood. We also get further personification of the wind through 'sheep scrum'. These are sibilant sounds and this literally gives the effect off that the wind is screeching.

We are also given interesting connotations about the persona's life in stanza four as well. We are given the phrase 'the road that leads to the past'. This signifies that the journey he is currently on which is going on his walk brings back all his memories because a journey itself is the metaphor of life. He later describes that his 'eyes water'. This could signify that he is gripped by the cold, or that he is so overcome by happy emotions, now that his father has gone the journey he has gone on is the only reminder he has left of his father and he feels sad because of this. This links well with the Larkin poem 'Home is So Sad'.

Stanza six really encompasses the idea that the persona is of elderly age where he comments 'I, as a boy'. This suggests that many memories have been triggered from remembering his past, he is reminiscing, however through this he has come to the realisation about how fast he has aged and how quickly life has gone. He also graffiti's 'STRAIGHT ON FOR THE FUTURE'. The capitals emphasises how much he has aged, but it is also articulate graffiti that he wanted to achieve something in life, it is a look and a realisation of what is going to happen in the future now. This links to 'Here' by Larkin and 'The Whitsun Weddings' by Larkin as it closely links to the arrow shower that we get at the end of that poem. The arrow shower is the potential or supposed desire to grow up, however it is the complete opposite when you are old because you just end up wanting to be young again.

The last stanza also connotes to us how the persona feels after going on his walk. He is described as being a 'tin can'. This connotes the idea that he feels empty and discarded from remembering all his memories from his childhood. The ending is an overall metaphor for how he now feels through 'with each struggling step I take'. This gives off the overall sense that from this point forward his life will begin to deteriorate and that he needs to make the most of it while it lasts before he dies.

On the Coast Road is very similar to a lot of Larkin's poems as we recognise that the journey he takes then results in a philosophical shift through the eyes of the persona. This is similar to poems by Larkin such as 'Here' and 'The Whitsun Weddings'. Decisions seem to make a basis of this poem as well, such as life choices for example. So this links to poems by Larkin such as 'Dockery and Son' and 'Self's the Man'.