Criticism > Poetry > Abse, Dannie - Genevieve Stuttaford (review date 1991)

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Genevieve Stuttaford (review date 1991)

SOURCE: Stuttaford, Genevieve. Review of White Coat, Purple Coat: Collected Poems 1948-1988, by Dannie Abse. Publishers Weekly 238, no. 6 (1 February 1991): 72.

[In the following review, Stuttaford offers a positive assessment of White Coat, Purple Coat: Collected Poems 1948-1988.]

This comprehensive volume of British poet Abse's work serves as both an introduction to and an enduring touch-stone of his lyrical voice. A doctor and a poet, Abse brings to his writing a level of humanism often missing from contemporary verse; as he himself puts it, “Humankind / cannot bear very much unreality.” Even so, what “reality” his poems reflect often borders on the unbearable: in “In the theatre” a man undergoing a brain probe cries out, “‘You sod, / leave my soul alone, leave my soul alone.’” A recurrent theme is the conflict between science and spirituality, as suggested by an image...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Roland Mathias (essay date 1967)
   2. Michael Mott (review date 1971)
   3. Times Literary Supplement (review date 1973)
   4. Dannie Abse and Mark Boada (interview date 1975)
   5. John Mole (review date 1977)
   6. Joseph Cohen (essay date 1983)
   7. Gigliol´ Sacerdoti Mariani (essay date 1983)
   8. Vernon Scannell (essay date 1983)
   9. Choice (review date 1984)
   10. Michael O'Neill (review date 1987)
   11. Genevieve Stuttaford (review date 1991)
   12. Publishers Weekly (review date 1993)
   13. Clara Gyorgyey (review date 1998)
   14. Ray Olson (review date 2000)
   15. Nicholas Wroe (essay date 2001)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright

1. How to Analyze a Poem
2. Poetry