In the Welsh National Museum (For Josef Herman) - Abse

From within the first stanza we get the sense that Abse is viewing a painting of himself in the Welsh National Museum. The painter seems to be called Josef Herman and it may of been a surprise that Abse stumbled upon this. He describes Josef as a painter that 'Autumn is your season and twilight is your hour' suggesting a dark side as twilight is midnight and dark and Autumn is the season where nature begins to die. This painting may not be accurate of Abse as a person, it's just that the artist is a dark painter.

Abse describes the painting of himself as a 'melancholy impostor' suggesting that the painter didn't accurately paint Abse.

Within the fourth stanza Abse begins to comment that the painting doesn't look like him at all through the quote 'Josef, this other is not me. This golem hardly looks like me'. Again this reinforces that Abse doesn't believe this painting reflects him as a person, this may cause him to think how other people perceive him in the world and whether he should change. This could link to Self's the Man where Larkin begins to self-reflect about himself through Arnold's life choices and lifestyle.

Within the fifth stanza this painting seems to conjure up bad memories from Abse's past. He seems to be commenting on the holocaust when he mentions 'Poland' and the 'inevitable exile'. We get the impression that this painting brings back sad memories of a horrific past for the Jewish faith reinforcing the idea that this painting is dark in it's nature. We get the idea that material objects can take us back to memories in the past. This links to some Larkin poems such as Love Songs in Age and Reference Back where an object or piece of music brings back memories. The contrast is that the memories are happy in Larkin's two musical poems and sad in this poem.

Abse is further critical of the artist's work in the whole of stanza six. He spots the differences in the painting to the real life version of himself.

Abse then seems to look across at other paintings in stanza eight and criticise the artists who painted them. He comments about 'Augustus John's too respectable W.H. Davies' and 'a prettified Dylan Thomas whose lips pout for a kiss'. Abse is suggesting that W.H. Davies looks to formal in his painting when in real life he is not and Dylan Thomas looks to pretty when in real life he is not. Abse maybe making a wider comment that a still life painting doesn't reflect a person at all, merely what the artist wants the person to be perceived as.

I really struggled with this poem and don't know if I have interpreted it right, HELP!