The Death of Aunt Alice

Themes
Death, loss, funerals, memories, affection, diappointment


Content
Though the title of the poem may imply a melancholy and sad reflection on a person's life, Abse actually speaks of how Aunt Alice was vivacious and enjoyed gossiping in life and therefore, that her funeral does not do her justice. While alive, Aunt Alice revelled in speaking of ghastly and unnatural deaths, thus making people uncomfortable with the truth of death.


Analysis

• The title itself sounds as though it is a newspaper headline or a story name detailing the unfortunate demise of "Aunt Alice" as filled with drama and tension.
• However, despite all the stories Alice told in her lifetime regarding extraordinary deaths, her own funeral is bland and mundane. The funeral is "orderly" with "each mourner correct" and "dressed in decent black". The alliteration of the 'd' sound here emphasises the normality and simplicity of the funeral and though this is what is stereotypically expected at a funeral, it is likely not what Alice would have wanted.
• For Alice, there is no "berserk" relative "with an axe" to liven up the funeral and there is no "opera-ending" as a person such as Alice deserves. Abse almost seems to make the speaker seem pitying of "poor Alice" and the fact that despite all she was in life, in death everyone meets the same end and the speaker appears mildy disappointed by this.
• The speaker clearly had an emotional attachment to Alice as the word "relished" suggests that Alice led a vibrant life and enjoyed the drama's of life, so to speak. For Alice, her bible was "Page One of a newspaper" with all the most interesting stories and headlines- as though she was religiously devoted to calamity and sadistically thrived on it.
• Though she was an aunt, Alice seems to have been inappropriate with her talk of "typhoid" at the table and "mangled" cars just when the family "were going for a spin". She was insensitive towards other feelings and perhaps enjoyed seeing fear in the eyes of other at her talk or simply didn't acknowledge that others may fear death unlike she. Death could occur in the most mundane everyday activities such as driving and this inevitably scares people. Alice was obviously a controversial figure within the family due to her constant talk of death and different ways to die. "You fatigued us with 'metal fatigue'" implies through the repetition that this is an inside joke and that the family have heard this story so many times that they have become worn down by it. However, the speaker seems to be using a fond and affectionate tone, suggesting that he accepted Aunt Alice for her peculiarities. The alliteration of "Boeings (planes) bubbling" under the surface of the ocean after crashing portrays the vibrancies of her story's and seems to mimic the sound of water bubbling, thus making the story more realistic and frightening.
• Alice was a cynical person who saw death everywhere in different "disguises" and "transformations". For Alice, a "tree" merely represented a method to make coffins for the people dying every day and the most mundane objects such as "rose bushes" became death traps for young boys ripping their eyes out. These typical symbols of love are twisted to become something fatal and the internal rhyme of "decoys" and "boys" links the mundane to the dangerous. The list of items becomes absurd as Alice thought that "spiders had designs" and were plotting people's deaths whilst her friends "grew SPECTATCULAR"- the capital letters replicate the enthusiastic manner in which Alice would speak of her friend's deaths and she enjoyed her friends less in life than in the odd natures of their deaths- lack of empathy. This could be seen to show that only in switching off empathy and your feelings can you become no longer frightened of death. In fact, Alice found natural deaths a "bore" as shown through the sarcastic tone and she was intrigued by gruesome deaths.
• Moving into the fourth stanza, Alice's friends are labelled "A", "B" and "C", emphasising how she did not see them as people but as stories to be told. Alice relishes every detail of her friends' deaths and turns the deaths into something comedic- one man who "never had a head for heights" "fell screaming down an liftshaft". The ludicrous nature of these deaths points to the idea that Alice was lying while the direct speech (what she would have said) helps the reader to feel more connected to her. Moreover, Alice's use of "poor fellow" links to the statement, "poor soul" in Larkin's 'Ambulances' to highlight how people utter these statements without any feeling behind them, though for Alice this is because she did not fear death.
• In the last stanza, the connection between the speaker and Alice becomes more apparent as he directly addresses Alice and remembers her as her vibrant self- "never again" shows the fragility of life and that she is truly gone. Though Alice's religion was focused around death and "gory admonitions" (warnings), the way this "lit" up her eyes and pleased her is something that the speaker cannot remonstrate. Alice found delight in death but is doing so "no more" as her own death didn't live up to the stories. The speaker can only hope in a joking manner that Alice is up in heaven telling "saints" the stories of their own "bloody martyrdoms" and having the opportunity for "eternity" to tell her grotesque stories- this is her legacy.
• One way this poem could be interpreted is that death is simply the end and does not do a person justice while it could also be that Alice spoke of death so often to become used to the idea, hoping that she would feel the impact of other's deaths less. Abse approaches the subject of death humorously and questions whether funerals are really a reflection of ourselves or just for our relatives left behind to gain closure. In the eyes of the speaker, it is almost as though Alice is still alive as her manner and stories live on and we get the impression that she can never be silenced. Despite the poem being based around death, Abse focuses more on Alice's life and how she made it her life's mission to talk about death at the most inappropriate moments. However, speaking about death still does not stop it though it makes people perhaps less fearful of the end. The memories the speaker recounts are vivid  and help to keep Alice alive though her anecdotes- her fiery life cannot be forgotten.
• The lack of a rhyme scheme highlights the unpredictability of death and the difference between Alice in life and at her funeral. The poem also becomes an apostrophe partway though, written as though it were a eulogy for Alice.

Links to Larkin
Themes- 'Ambulances'- Death is inevitable and visits "all streets in time," no matter how much a person wishes the ambulance to pass by. Though people utter words of distress, these are often words of their own distress and in some ways, relief that it is not their own family that is being taken away.
'Nothing To Be Said'- Alice is the complete opposite of those people who avoid the topic of death in life as it frightens them. Instead, Alice used every available minute to detail the gory and gruesome deaths of both friends and strangers, not acknowledging how her family might have felt about this.
'Naturally the Foundation will Bear Your Expenses'- Both Larkin and Abse are highlighting how Remembrance Days and such services for remembering the dead e.g. funerals are meaningless and only happen for ceremony. They become impersonal and are not honest reflections of a person's life.
'Mr Bleaney'- Alice, like Mr Bleaney, seems to have been a burden for her family and both end up in coffins of practicality without love or compassion.
'Reference Back'- Life in the end is "unsatisfactory" as we look back on all our "losses" and recognise that the ones we love will also soon be gone. People do not care to dwell on all the people they have lost, however, both the speaker and Aunt Alice seem not to worry about this point.
'Wild Oats'- Abse's portrayal of women is very different to Larkin as Larkin made judgements passed purely on appearance ("bosomy English rose") while the speaker in Abse's poem admires and remembers his aunt for her character and will always hold on to the memories of her as vibrant and alive- cares little for beauty and more for the personality that affected his life.


Tone- Humourous, flippant- 'A Study of Reading Habits', 'The Whitsun Weddings', 'Self's the Man', 'Naturally the Foundation...'
Nostalgic and eulogistic-'For Sidney Bechet', 'Broadcast'


Technique- The alliteration of "dressed in decent black" to emphasise the monotony and boring nature of life is like that in 'Here' ("sharp shoes"), 'Afternoons' ("swing and sandpit") and 'The Whitsun Weddings' ("broad belts"). Moreover, this is the colour of mourning which contrasts with the "wild white face" in 'Ambulances'.
The use of the exclamation mark to show almost child-like enthusiasm for a matter is similar to that in 'A Study of Reading Habits'-"The women I clubbed with sex!"- while the rhetorical question to present disappointment in life and death appears also in 'Send No Money'.