A Scene from Married Life - Abse

A Scene from Married Life has some similarities and some differences with how it compares to some of the poems by Philip Larkin. Some of Philip Larkin's poems use nature to make a big philosophical comment. For example, First Sight that uses lambs to gives us a representation of human life. However Larkin's poems are a lot more abstract and it's harder to understand the real message behind his poems. Whereas Abse's poems are a lot more concrete in their overall message. This poem also links to the Larkin poem Talking in Bed as it is also about a couple who appear to have been together for years as do the couples in this poem. Much like this one Larkin uses nature to represent what is going on in this poem and this is also conveyed in Talking in Bed.

A Scene from Married Life is a poem about the life and arguments of a married couple. The poem is written when the couple are in an unstable position within their marriage. The first stanza gives us a representation of normal everyday reality through the quote 'the commuters trapped in their stuffy office block, the sea slow, the Monday beach sullen, empty'. However this gives us a sense that the persona is trapped in this office. This quote maybe a larger comment on the fact that marriage can trap you. This is further represented through the quote in stanza two 'squabble with my wife'. This gives us the idea that everything is normal until they argue because of the representation of the everyday norm in stanza one.

'Fast barbed words' gives us an idea that the couples arguments are said out of spite. This is further reinforced when the other makes the other one 'squirm' and it is described as 'verbal revenge' as if the couple are always trying to outwit one another with nasty remarks and are always trying to hurt one another. The metaphor 'a dead bird eaten by the early worm' is used to convey the nastiness of their remarks towards one another. Or it could be a further representation that their current marriage situation is literally eating away at one another. This is also an image of decay, so this acts as a metaphor that their marriage is decaying.

In the fourth stanza we understand that this boat is a metaphor for many other marriages failing through the quote 'so many boats it had torn asunder'. It's as if many marriages crumble and fall apart and this boat is the metaphor for their marriage. The quote 'Seagulls drifted above like lost thoughts of the damned' is used by Abse to give us a comparison between humans and nature. This is similar to what Larkin does.

The reference to the 'B movie' in stanza five could represent that this couples marriage is no more than basic, in other words it is nothing special at all. People who go to watch B movies look down at them due to there low budget. Maybe Larkin is commenting that other people look down at this couple because they don't think that it is genuine, it is just a façade.

In stanza six we get a sense that the persona is sorry to the wife. However she is presented as being more powerful than he is. 'High cliff my wife dressed in blue' suggests the wife is looking superior - standing up dressed in blue represents her as a goddess, it's as if she has become idealised within her own husband's thoughts. We get the impression that the husband has surrendered the fight, he may not want to, but he feels that he has to which represents an unhealthy marriage.

Within the last stanza the persona describes their marriage as 'Our own cold wars'. This represents that their arguments had sufficient impact on both of them, so much so that they were just as destructive as a war. However, it is described as a 'cold war' which represents that a lot didn't go on and that it might of just been a build up of negative feelings from within the couple. The quote 'but children's cries were mightier than the pen' suggests that the children are his priority in life. The ending of this poem has some significance. The 'and then...' represents that the couples arguments will always continue on in a cycle and it will never stop. This again gives us this idea that the persona is feeling trapped.

This poem links to other Larkin poems such as Talking in Bed through the representation of an unsteady relationship. It also links to First Sight through many of the metaphors that are used in both poems to describe human life.