[Dannie Abse's Collected Poems 1948–1976] are enjoyable because most of them are well-made, they can be understood at a first or second reading which pleases both the author and his considerable following; they are enlivening because many of them contain moments of humour, give the same satisfaction as a good short story, and are very much of our time in being framed within recognisable situations; and several of them, the core of Abse's achievement, convey a real feeling of unease, which is what interests me most. There are few contemporary practitioners in English who communicate such a sense of something very nasty continuing, through us and around us—a sort of disquieting apprehension that things are about to fall apart even in the most banal and humdrum circumstances. It is as if he really wishes to celebrate only the spontaneous joys, the hopes and consolations of living, but is...