In their respective countries, Great Britain and the United States, Dannie Abse and Donald Hall are considered to be up-and-coming poets. They are among the plausible heirs of the modern movement. They are sophisticates in the best sense, urbane younger men, sensitive to literary traditions, aware of social values and distinctions, intelligently critical of prevailing middle-class standards and, in the case of Mr. Abse, of mankind's perilous flirtation with the destructive power of the atom. Both of them are concerned with the theme of self-knowledge, which is in part knowledge of the relationship of the poet to himself and to the discipline of his craft and in part knowledge of the relationship of the poet to other individuals, quite as isolated as he, and to the mass of men.

"Tenants of the House" comprises work of a five-year period, 1951–1956; and one finds that Mr. Abse writes most convincingly...