A Sea-Shell for Vernon Watkins - Abse

This poem by Abse is about the remembrance of another poet who read his poem out on stage. We get this idea that this poem is about remembrance through words in the first stanza such as 'unreal' and 'unearthed'. Abse speaks of other influential Irish poets such as 'Yeats' and 'David', this is a further reinforcement that this is a remembrance poem as Abse is remembering poets from the past. Within the last bit of the first stanza we get a representation of life and death. Abse comments that 'I lifted a sea-shell from your shadow when you big-talked how the dead resume the silence of God'. Abse is representing the view that when we die God still remains silence, he does not exist in other words to preserve life. Abse is conveying the idea that death is a natural process that each and everyone of us end up having to face. It is clear that Vernon Watkins is someone who is dead that Abse used to know because he 'picks a sea-shell from your shadow'. The shadow in this case represents death, however Abse picks the sea-shell up conveying that Abse has taken a hold on life and is hoping for the best.

In the second stanza we get a contrasting word to the word 'unearthed' used in the first stanza and this is 'earthed', this resembles the change in the countryside around Pennard. Death is also further presented to us within this stanza through the quote 'I found, startled, it's phantom sea utterly silent - the shell's cochlea scooped out'. The word 'phantom' gives us a sense of something unnatural or horrible that shouldn't be on Earth giving a negative portrayal of death. It is interesting that the cochlea has been scooped out. If the sea shell is a metaphor for life in this case then it's inner fragment has been taken which presents the view that death has overridden life now within this sea shell. This could be why there is only 'one shadow at Pennard today', this one shadow just represents death and not life. During the end of this stanza we get the contrast between the sea-shell and the poet on stage. The sea-shell's sound is described as a 'void' and an 'interruption of sound' in comparison to the poet who is described as 'who once sang loud'. Abse could be conveying the view that the world itself is quiet without the poet now. After all a 'void' is completely empty so maybe Abse feels empty without the poet no longer being around.

Within the last stanza Abse comes to the view that in the end we are all forgotten as humans. He describes Watkins as being 'dispensable' because other poets are easily able to replace him once he has died. Abse also uses the quote 'the young asking, Who?' This is similar to the message conveyed in Two Photographs that eventually after generations to come we become forgotten or what we once were becomes tampered with. This also has close links to the Larkin poem 'An Arundel Tomb' where the job of the tomb has changed over time. Family members would of only used to visit it however now it is open to the general public to view who may not understand the tombs underlying message. Within the final part of this stanza we see that sea-shells should be used on beaches to remember the dead who have now gone. However Abse comments that 'this shell is useless' conveying the idea that once we die we become useless as we have no importance within the world no longer.

This poem links with For Sydney Bechet as it is a memory poem of a poet that Abse admires and will remember and cherish similarly to how Larkin views Sydney Bechet. This poem could link to some of the death poems by Larkin such as Home is So Sad, Take One Home for the Kiddies and Ambulances as Death is also a prominent theme within this poem and it is interesting how death is represented within the different works of Larkin and Abse. This poem also links to An Arundel Tomb as I mentioned earlier.