Red Balloon

Summary

• Red balloon is a poem about Abse growing up in Wales and about how he was burdened with the severe prejudices of others, specifically against his Judaism

• The ‘Red Balloon’ is symbolism for Abse’s faith and this is coherent throughout because of the metaphorical strength of the balloon ‘some clawed at my balloon, but still it would not burst’

Features It sailed across the startled town, Over chapels, over chimney-pots, Wind-blown above a block of flats Before it floated down The first stanza instigates the extended metaphor and the idea of it floating over the town gives off the impression that it has some sort of omnipotence over others

Oddly, it landed where I stood, And finding’s keeping, as you know. I breathed on it, I polished it, Till it shone like living blood Stanza 2 has a simile in the final line and this has the effect of emphasizing the balloon as symbolism because it’s humanized with the word ‘blood’

It was my shame, it was my joy, it brought me notoriety. From all Wales the rude boys came, It ceased to be a toy The paradox in the first line has the effect of displaying alternate perceptions of his religion; the ‘shame’ is the way it is perceived by the Welsh society in general, the ‘joy’ is his personal interpretation

I heard the girls of Cardiff sigh When my balloon, my red balloon, Soared higher like a happiness Towards the dark blue sky Stanza 4 shows Abse inducing pathos as he is emphasizing how belittled he felt by all. Also, the simile in line 3 is to show how strongly he felt about Judaism; trying to link happiness to it whenever possible

Then some boys laughed and some boys cursed, Some unsheathed their dirty knives; Some lunged, some clawed at my balloon, But still it would not burst The tone of this stanza is extremely hyperbolic and this is done to suggest how strong his religious persuasion was and also the resentment most held towards him because of it

Interpretation • The interpretation of this poem is that the balloon is coherent symbolism for his

strong Jewish faith. It is about the conflicts religion brought up and the divisive effect it had on society as a whole

Links to Larkin • The Larkin Poem – Sunny Prestatyn is similar to Red Balloon. In this poem, a girl on

a poster advertising a holiday resort is completely defaced by vandals and the attack is described as very malicious ‘stab right through The moustached lips’ and the attack is similar to the attacks on Abse because of his religion. Before the attacks, both the poster and the religion are both pristine ‘shone like living blood’, ‘In tautened white satin’

• A tenuous link could be made between Red Balloon and Water. In Water, Larkin talks of how he would construct a religion if he was called in to do so. The emphasis he puts on the water and this has the effect of removing the potency of religion. He feels as if he would be one of the boys lunging at Abse; seemingly obstinate towards the concept of religion. It also suggests the impurity of religion ‘A furious devout drenched’ and this maybe vindicates the spite others have towards religions