SOURCE: Review of One-Legged on Ice, by Dannie Abse. Choice 21 (February 1984): 818.

In the following review, the critic praises the poems in One-Legged on Ice for their balance and duality.

The title of the Welsh poet Dannie Abse's collection [One-Legged on Ice] is a line borrowed from one of the poems, and it connotes a precariousness and an uncertainty of balance. Technically, these pieces are usually far too well crafted to seem precarious, although Abse's work often takes risks with content and emotion. Occasionally, however, a reader may wish for even more emotion and less intellect, although candid and powerful pieces such as the love poems and the poems about his son satisfy quite admirably one's need for depth and resonance. This collection, offering a careful balance between craft and feeling, between wit and intensity (particularly in the poems written out of Abse's experiences as a medical doctor) should...