Postcard to His Wife

This poem is much more personal than Larkin's when he talks about the relationship he has with women

"You" and "I" and "Abse's" -> second personal pronouns

"and the dulcamara of memory" -> bittersweet memories

"and the Venus de Milo is only stone" -> believed to depict the Greek Goddess of love and beauty, Aphrodite - but it's only stone to Abse - still and cold - Abse believed that without his wife that life had no meaning

"I know the impoverishment of self" -> feels in poverty without his wife

"So come home. The bed's too big! Make excuses." -> he's lonely without her - feels a void in his heart - feels empty without her in his life

"Hint we are agents in an obscure drama" -> adventures

"and must go North to climb 2000 feet" -> maybe something he and his wife used to do together and was personal to them

He would do anything to have her back

Stanza 3 -> he would be perfectly happy in just his wife's company and the nature around: "cornfields", "hedges" and "roses"

Stanza 4 -> "blessed" to be together if they could be -> "sand dunes and blessed, mimc the old gods" - act how Gods said the happy way to be holy was heavenly love

"whim, "twisting" and "wild" -> adventures together - doing simple things

Excessively devoted to his wife -> unhealthy maybe? - still in mourning

Absence can't make the heart grow fonder because it's not humanly possible to love anymore, more than he loved his wife - his everything -> he has undying and irrevocable love for his wife is no longer alive

The structure - the exclamation marks and the emotions shown make it really realistic - like he is calling out for his wife to come back to him - begging her

Abse -> writes from own experiences

Larkin -> writes from out observer's perspective (of other people's lives)

Connects to Larkin's 'Love Songs in Age', 'An Arundel Tomb' 'Wild Oats'