The Malham Bird

I believe this poem is about Abse remembering the first days when he met his wife and the choices that they made early on which changed and shaped their life to how it is now. This can be seen within in the first three stanzas however by the last two stanzas it seems to me that Abse is showing an epiphany - similar to those that Larkin portrays - through the link to the present times and the religious aspects that he believes in.
One of the key themes that I believe can be seen in this poem is relationships and the intimacy that he has between himself and his wife. This can be seen in "Dear wife" and "(For Joan)" as it suggests that Abse must have a lot of respect and love for his wife to dedicate the whole poem to her and the relationship that they shared.
Another key theme that I feel can be seen in this poem is religion and beliefs as Abse quotes different Jewish beliefs throughout the poem. These can be seen in "the malham of Eden", "forbidden fruit" and "the vanished gardens of Paradise".This portrays a Jewish legend and the forbidden fruit signifies that you cannot taste the joys of the world. I believe that the religious aspects of this poem are significant as it shows that Abse is religious compared with Larkin who is not.
However, I believe that the "forbidden fruit"could also be a metaphor for life choices and how we make conscious life choices all the time. I believe that this therefore links to 'Dockery and Son' by Larkin as it suggests that we make conscious life choices and it also shows an epiphany at the end of the poem similarly to 'The Malham Bird'.
Another thing that I found interesting about this poem was the emphasis on birds throughout. This can be seen in "friendly gull", "black feathered bird" and "of all the birds". I believe that the use of birds could suggest the freedom that the couple first had when they were together but also links to the choices they had as well.
The rhyme scheme used within this poem is also not regular as the first and third stanza rhyme however the the second and fourth stanza feature half-rhymes. This could suggest that their love is regular as it is every other stanza that has half-rhymes suggesting a regular pattern however that their love at a young age was unclear due to the choices that they had yet to make.