The Mistake

Themes
Disappointment, human selfishness and pride, identity, illusion and reality, nature, disguise, breaking free of lies


Content
This poem concerns a family who discover from a tree-expert that the tree that grows in their garden is rare for Wales and thus, use is as a point to boast about to any visitors who pass by. However, when summer comes and with it, a drought, the tree reveals its true identity to be a simple walnut tree-worthy of little attention generally but now with a story behind it.


Analysis

• The title itself instantly declares that someone within the poem has made an error and it becomes known that the family (humans) and not the tree (nature) are at fault.
• From the start of the first stanza, it is clear that the family want people to come into their garden as a matter of pride and the command words of "Come" and "Smell" force both the visitor and the reader to pay attention to what the family is showing. The use of the personal pronoun "our (garden)" further reinforces the boasting nature of the family whilst the use of caesura makes the sentences sound rehearsed- it is a story they have told many times. The visitors must take in the tree as a whole and the use of anthropomorphism in relation to the "green tree" causes the tree to become a living creature. Though it originally had "no identity", the identity that it has been given is one of worth.
• The family repeatedly ask people whether the tree is suggestive of an "Oriental dispensary", with this highlighting the exotic and foreign nature of the tree and also linking to the idea of it having healing powers.
• Moving into the second stanza, the reader comes to understand how the tree earned its reputation. A "tree-expert" told the family that the tree was named "Evodia danieli" and was "without doubt/From Korea". The fact that this tree was "thriving" in Wales was considered "odd" and immediately, the family latched onto the idea so as to provide them with "something to boast about". They happily "thanked" the "tree-expert" for the gift of knowledge that he had given them and went on to "proudly" offer a "leaf" each time a visitor "came". Human nature dictates that people constantly try to possess the rarest and most beautiful things and consequently boast of their conquests, however, the family took this information too eagerly without any evidence and the tree had already sat in their garden for "thirteen years" unnoticed- people believe what they want to hear.
• The family go so far as to make the tree appear almost holy and capable of curing illnesses such as a "cold". It is the answer to their prayers (a "pagan Benediction" )and they make it seem as though they were specifically singled out to have this "gift" which divinely fills the nose and mouth. Abse uses the words "swank" and "urge" to present how the family are almost forceful in their presentation of the tree and flaunt the tree in the faces of visitors to prove their superiority or in an attempt to impress society and climb up the social ladder.
• However, for all of this boasting and arrogance, the illusion is shattered in the fourth stanza as the rhetorical question is ironically answered. The tree is not a "treasure" and has become "Tired of lies"- this identity has been forced upon it and it cannot bear it any longer. The dreams of uniqueness are so easily and suddenly shattered and proven to be "lies", with this word being placed on its own line to underline its mockery of the story. Even in its "parched" state, the tree has "asserted itself" and "sprouted ordinary walnuts" and though this makes the tree "ordinary" and normal, it is "shamelessly free of disguise". This could be interpreted to mean that the tree is shameless at it personally did not create the lies or that the family themselves are shameless as they could not have known what it really was and now have a new story to tell. The discovery of the false identity makes the tree even more interesting for the backstory behind it and Abse is perhaps stating that no one can successfully pretend to be something they're not forever. However, unlike Larkin, Abse manages to make the unveiling of the disguise into something positive, if not slightly humiliating.

Links to Larkin


Themes- 'As Bad as a Mile'- the sense of disappointment at losing something that could boost your spirits or improve your status, human greed at always wanting the most beautiful object or that which you are not allowed
'Sunny Prestatyn'- illusion and disguise will ultimately give way to reality. Whilst it is the tree in Abse's poem that rebels, it is people that destroy the illusion of the poster in Larkin's poem. However, the destruction of the disguise in Larkin's poem is much more violent and brutal-"stab right through"
'A Study of Reading Habits'- a mocking look at how a person's opinion of their identity or the identity of others is often incorrect/distorted
'Love Songs in Age'- believing in something wholeheartedly only to discover that it cannot match up to your expectations
'Ignorance'- people never really know the truth and often go through life believing in things that are false
'The Importance of Elsewhere'- how being something else or going elsewhere can strengthen your sense of identity
'Send No Money'- our readiness to believe in something if we hope it is true. The boy in Larkin's poem believes "Time" when he says that by sitting on the side lines of life, it will be better for him
'First Sight'- an optimistic look at how things will improve and get better. By discovering the tree's true identity, there is no more shame and the tree has an interesting story behind it while in Larkin's poem, winter will give way to spring and warmth for the lambs
'Here'- nature does not lie but gets tainted by the influence of humans- "luminously- peopled air", the tree in Abse's poem does not create the lie of its identity.


Tone- The tone throughout this poem is conversational like that in 'The Whitsun Weddings' and 'Wild Oats' whilst also being self-mocking at times, thus again linking to 'Wild Oats' and 'Send No Money'. At the beginning the tone appears smug and arrogant like the persona in 'Self's the Man' but the unveiling of the disguise helps lower this self-confidence, though the poem ends on a optimistic note similar to that in 'An Arundel Tomb'- "What will survive of us is love"



Techniques- the use of the rhetorical question in order to display superiority is similar to that in 'Naturally the Foundation will Bear Your Expenses'.
The command words present in this poem also appear in 'Home is So Sad' and 'Toads Revisited' in order to clearly focus the reader's attention and to present the idea that the speaker is in control.
Moreover, the use of short sentences and caesura to emphasise a particular point and to highlight the disconnection between past and present and what is real and what is not mirrors the use in Larkin's 'Home is So Sad' and 'Ignorance'. Like in 'Home is So Sad', Abse also use anthropomorphism to make the tree become a living creature as the house becomes in Larkin's poem.