The Death of Aunt Alice

This poem tells the tale of the narrator visiting the funeral of a lady named Aunt Alice, who is shown to be dramatic, eccentric, exaggerated and comically pessimistic. The poem explores themes of death, fate, family and irony. Abse creates a casual, slightly sarcastic tone, and this contrasts intriguingly with the underlying tones of death. The overall effect of the poem is a comical one, although the humour is dark and presents the serious message that death awaits us all, whether it be expected or unexpected.
     The first stanza presents Aunt Alice's funeral as being extremely ironic. It was 'orderly' and 'correct', contrasting with the 'high catastrophe' which she most 'relished'. The reader sees straight away that Aunt Alice was eccentric, and that the funeral which she received did not suit her. Her personality deserved an 'opera-ending'; the ending to her life should have been more extravagant to match the life she lived.
     It becomes obvious by the end of the second stanza that the narrator knew Aunt Alice very well, and was often present when she comically and ironically brought up her pessimistic views. 'You talked of typhoid when we sat to eat; / Fords on the M4, mangled, upside down, / just when we were going for a spin'. These observations made by Aunt Alice are ironic due to her bringing them up at the worst possible moments. They are also darkly humorous, but present the underlying message that death waits around every corner, and many of the daily events that we embark on without a thought (such as sitting down to eat or going for a drive) are possible passages to our deaths. It appears that Abse is presenting death as an unpredictable, often unexpected element, through the voice of Aunt Alice.
     'Such disguises and such transformations!' - this beginning line of stanza three could symbolise how we see everything as being beautiful and positive when we cover our eyes and minds from reality, but everything is not as it seems. By using an exclamation mark, Abse effectively makes the line sound sarcastic and comical. The narrator goes on to tell of how, to Aunt Alice, 'Even trees were but factories for coffins' - did Aunt Alice's character see the worst in everything, or did she just see the truth? Even things associated with beauty, such as 'roses', were seen through Alice's eyes as 'decoys to rip boys' eyes with thorns'. The fact that she 'relished on high catastrophe'  is emphasised through the narrator's observation of Alice's friends: 'none to bore you by dying naturally.' This is comical and obtains a slight tone of sarcasm. The word ‘SPECTACULAR’ is notably associated with commonness, similarly to ‘Fords’, and this emphasises the casual tone of the poem and possibly depicts the way in which Alice spoke of death in a very matter-of-fact manner - gore did not appear to phase her.

     In stanza four, the narrator goes on to talk of Alice's friends, naming them as 'A', 'B' and 'C'. By presenting a lack of identity and not using names, it could be argued that Abse is suggesting a lack of factuality within Aunt Alice's observations (maybe things aren't as pessimistic as she perceives?). This could also be interpreted as everyone is but a letter, and the same fate will eventually present itself to us all - therefore identity is somewhat meaningless. This stanza is highly comical, and Abse creates a tone of dark humour: 'C., so witty, so feminine, 'Pity / she ended up in a concrete mixer.'
     The tone shifts in the final stanza to something much less humerous and more sad: 'But now, never again, Alice, will you utter / gory admonitions'. By presenting 'tall stories' as Aunt Alice's 'eternity', Abse could possibly be implying that we must not focus on the unpleasant details and possible realities of life, or it will become all you are, all you talk about. It could be argued that he is suggesting it is better to enjoy life and ignore the possible paths to death, although they do very much exist in around every corner.
     The structure of this poem consists of five stanzas with six lines each. The structure is clear and ordered, echoing the fashion of the funeral. There is no rhyme scheme used, and this could depict Abse's view that death is unpredictable and unknown. The overall tone of the poem is somewhat casual with notes of sarcasm which contrast with the underlying theme of death and the many ways in which it looms over us.
     This poem could be linked to many of Larkin's poems as he frequently discusses death, but one that stood out to me as presenting a very clear link is 'Ambulances', which symbolises the inevitability of death and the common fear that it is just around the corner for us all.