Sons

This poem explores the relationship between father and son. It also follows themes of growing up, youth and adolescence, the passing of time and the past itself. The persona in the poem appears to be looking back on his youth with perspective, and considering how alike his son is to his own adolescent self. The similarities between himself and his son make his remember things about himself when he was his son's age.
     The first line of the first stanza uses sibilance and alliteration; 'Sarcastic sons slam front doors.' This creates an almost jokey tone as if the persona finds his son's 'mood swings' slightly amusing. Abse goes on to describe how his son's actions make him think of 'Cardiff outskirts where, once, captured acres played / at being small tamed gardens...' Here we see the persona remembering and reminiscing his own youth, and this memory suggests a childlike, imaginitive game where he possibly was pretending to own a house and garden of his own (faked maturity?). 'Now my son is like that, altering every day'; here the reader gets the persona's direct opinion that his son is very much like his adolescent self. We also gather the impression that his son is forever changing, physically and mentally, maturing and growing with the passing of time. This presents the idea that nothing stays the same, just as the persona in Abse's poem is looking back on his youthful self as an almost seperate indiviual to his current person.
     In the second stanza, the persona describes himself as being alike to 'those new semis that seem ashamed', as well as his son. This seems an odd comparison to make, and could possibly be seen to suggest a sense of feeling out of place, standing out in an area that makes him feel as if he does not belong. This interpretation is strengthened in the following stanza in which Abse makes a reference to 'London', where his son is currently slamming a door, and then to 'Cardiff', Abse's hometown. This creates a sense of discomfort and unfamiliarity, as if he sticks out like a 'new semi' in London due to his cultural identity.
     'At the frontier of Nowhere order and chaos clash': this could be a presentation of adolescence and a wish to 'find yourself' when you're young. An emphatic, understanding tone is created as the persona questions 'who's not lived at the frontier of Nowhere' - it appears that the persona is acknowledging things in his son that he has already experienced for himself. By giving it a capital 'N' Abse presents 'Nowhere' as a place, giving the impression that it is somewhere everyone has to visit before eventually finding 'Somewhere'. Abse's juxtaposition of the two opposites 'prim and brash' at the end of this stanza could portray a teenager's changing emotions and altering moods. It could also suggest a sense of wanting to be independant and looked-after at the same time, and wanting to be mature but in reality still being young. The question mark used after this juxtaposition could depict the uncertainty of being an adolescent.
     The reader experiences a philosophical shift at the beginning of stanza four which is very much alike to Larkin: 'Strange a London door should slam / and I think thus, of Cardiff evenings'. We are again reminded of how the persona's son takes him back to his own past, prompting him, almost forcing him, to remember his youth. A childlike, imaginative game is again presented in the fourth stanza as Abse describes a Cardiff-based memory of 'ruins where ghosts abide.' He also uses another comparison, this time of 'Anglo' and 'Welsh' - 'half town, half countryside.' This use of yet more opposites could be a reference to the persona's son not knowing how he is yet, as if to himself he feels 'nameless'. The word 'Awkward' creates a further sense of dis-belonging and not fitting in, both concepts which the majority of teenagers struggle with.
     The fifth stanza sees the persona exclaim: 'Son, you are like that and I / love you for it.' These lines powerfully enforce the understanding, emphatic tone of the poem, presenting a good relationship between father and son. 'In adult rooms / the hesitant sense of not belonging quite'; this could be a presentation of how his son is trying to clutch at maturity but does not obtain it yet, and how he is 'hesitant' in accepting he is still just a child, trying desperately to act older than his age.
     The last three lines of this final stanza appear to be a warning from the persona to his son: 'Too soon maturity will switch off your night, / thrust fake electric roots, the nameless becoming / wrongly named and your savage darkness bright.' The persona is looking back on his own past with perspective and possibly seeings his own mistakes/regrets be relived through his son. '...the nameless becoming wrongly named' could suggest that his son is 'getting in with the wrong crowd', or being led down the wrong path. This ending is slightly pessimistic as it seems to be stating that the son's fate is doomed to follow that of his father. However, the final two words - 'darkness bright' - are oxymorons, and this could be a final representation of how, although they are very similar, the persona and his son will always remain different people, and could therefore have very different fates.
     This poem links nicely with many of Larkin's poems: these include 'Dockery and Son', 'Love Songs In Age' and 'Reference Back'.