"scared to hear my mother's news" - Abse is afraid to her about another person's death is afraid to hear"mother's face is in her ninth decade" - scared about time running out - the inevitability of death - can feel death coming for him and his mum - he doesn't want to say how old she is -ninety- scares him because death is unescapable
"her friends are disrobed" - post-mortem but the single line is confusing until you read the next line
"the hole" - grave - talks around death - never direct about it - doesn't want to confront death head-on
"too" - repetition - shows that it keeps happening, and his increasing fear
"monotonous story of clocks" - "clocks" represent time- the inevitability of death
"hair turning grey" - ageing, again time passing
"perishable" - dying
"the tawe ran fluent" - water rushing indicates the natural passing of time
"his mother's mother" - looking back at people that are now gone - his mother will eventually die
"you're no Jewess" - history of discrimination - insulting
"under the M4 again" - cycle of life - poem begins and ends with him being on the M4
"the bridges leap over me then shrink in my side mirror" - represent his life - ageing and how life disappears
"and God further than all distance known" - feels such a distance from religion because its not bringing him any comfort - people are continuously dying - God is killing the people he loves
"like the tune my mother knows it won't keep" - just like that won't last - his life won't last
feels disconnected from religion and that everything is transitory, fleeting
"the tawe ran fluent" - water rushing indicates the natural passing of time
"his mother's mother" - looking back at people that are now gone - his mother will eventually die
"you're no Jewess" - history of discrimination - insulting
"under the M4 again" - cycle of life - poem begins and ends with him being on the M4
"the bridges leap over me then shrink in my side mirror" - represent his life - ageing and how life disappears
"and God further than all distance known" - feels such a distance from religion because its not bringing him any comfort - people are continuously dying - God is killing the people he loves
"like the tune my mother knows it won't keep" - just like that won't last - his life won't last
feels disconnected from religion and that everything is transitory, fleeting
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