The Death of Aunt Alice

The 6th of my students' offerings:

 

Commentary on ‘The Death of Aunt Alice’ by Dannie Abse

The poem is triggered by the speaker thinking about “Aunt Alice’s funeral” and then goes on to talk about his peculiar memories of her and how her funeral didn’t reflect how she lived as it was “orderly” where as she catastrophised everything, perhaps to make her life more exciting.

Aunt Alice “relished high catastrophe” and made herself stand out from others, however at her funeral they were all “dressed in black”, this could suggest that no matter how different we are in life, we all amount to the same thing – death.

A link to Larkin is ‘For Sidney Bechet’, as this was a poem devoted to a jazz musician that died and ‘The Death of Aunt Alice’ is devoted to the speaker’s aunt. Despite this similarity, Abse has written his poem in a much more personal manner, as he described actual memories with her whereas Larkin was more distant with his emotions. Also, Larkin’s poem ‘Nothing To Be Said’ links to the theme of death being inevitable, like how it is described in Abse’s poem. However, the way the inevitability of death is described is much more light-hearted in Abse’s poem.

 Martyrdoms – someone that is willing to die for a cause

Admonitions – firm warning or reprimand

Typhoid – infectious bacterial fever