At the Concert - Abse

The first two stanzas of this poem gives us a sense of the everyday routine of life and how it blissfully passes by all of us without our own recognition. 'The same old grass, same old flavour' acts as this metaphor that life itself is one big routine. The second stanza of this poem also conveys more negative ideas about life. The horse doesn't move and is described as a 'statue'. The horse is a metaphor for human life, it just stands there. Abse is commenting that many of us follow this same routine in life, we grow up, get jobs, get married and die and this is the usual routine for all of us. It's as if we are all waiting motionless, waiting for something exciting to happen in life, when this will never truly happen. This is reinforced when Abse compares the same characteristics of the animals to a woman at the concert, she also sits 'motionless' waiting for something to happen.

Within the fourth stanza Abse also comments on the duration of how much we wait for things to happen in life. Abse comments that 'If so, join the queue. It stretches all the way to the Old People's Home'. Abse is suggesting that in order to do exciting things in life you really need to embrace it and do something different. If you just 'follow the crowd' then you are doing what everyone else is doing which in his opinion is boring. This links to the sheep referred to in stanza one that carries out the same routine all the time.

We get the impression in stanza five that Abse is at the concert however his thoughts are elsewhere which could convey that he is at two locations himself experiencing the music but it's in the background.

Abse also uses his cat in stanza six to convey this boring aspect of life. Words such as 'unmolested' 'soundless and 'blank' reinforce these boring ideas about life.

We find out in the last stanza that Abse would also rather look out of his window and do nothing in comparison to having a great time at the concert. This could convey the idea that Abse is like everyone else, just sitting there and waiting for life to pass by them. This poem links to Broadcast by Larkin as it encompasses this sense of music, however Abse is drifting in and out of two locations through his thoughts and where he actually is. This is similar to what happens in Broadcast where two people are in different locations, however experiencing the same concert.