Welsh Retrospective

by Dannie Abse

Welsh Retrospective is a selection of poems about his native Wales by one of Britain s most popular poets. Dannie Abse s Welsh and Jewish backgrounds have been essential to his writings. Wales and Cardiff, in particular, have haunted his imagination.

In this revealing new book he writes movingly about the Cardiff of his childhood, home of his beloved Bluebirds football team, and also about the small village of Ogmore-by-Sea, location of early holidays and for many years his home in Wales. Selected from the whole of Dannie Abse s writing career, the book includes such well known and well-loved poems as Return to Cardiff and In the Theatre alongside many previously uncollected poems.
Abse s range is remarkable. Vivid character portraits of Aunt Alice and Cousin Sidney sit next to tributes to poet predecessors, Dylan Thomas and Vernon Watkins. Some poems draw on Jewish writings, others on Welsh language literature.
Welsh Retrospective gives fascinating insights into Dannie Abse s Wales and his versatility as a poet. His Wales is anything but parochial, his poems effortlessly universal. Every reader will be struck by a poet who has a gift for accepting mortality with wise optimism.
The book is edited by Cary Archard who provides an introduction and notes on the poems.

Genres: Poetry, School

95 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1997

About the author

Daniel Abse CBE FRSL (1923–2014) was a Welsh poet, author, doctor and playwright. He wrote and edited more than sixteen books of poetry, as well as fiction and a range of other publications. His poetry won him many awards. As a medic, he worked in a chest clinic for over 30 years.

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dannie_...

Reviews

[Charlotte Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't usually read much poetry but this year I'm trying to make a concerted effort to read at least one collection every few months. 

I picked this one up years ago because I grew up in Wales and as I usually enjoy nature poetry, I thought this would resonate more with me. Although my favourites of the collection were the more nature based poems, I found many of the poems in the collection to not be very impacting. I think that Abse managed to describe landscape very evocatively but I didn't feel any particular emotions whilst reading this book.

Overall, this isn't a collection I would recommend. I am aware that other readers may take more from this than I did but I didn't enjoy the majority of the poems unfortunately.

2 out of 5 stars!

[Tori Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

really really clever

[Angharad]

A level english

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in my first year of sixth form for English Literature as fulfillment of the foreign texts requirement, and I infinitely preferred it over the partner text, Phillip Larkin's The Whitsun Weddings. Where Larkin was violently cynical, Abse seemed thoroughly genuine and real.

As the word 'retrospective' would suggest, a vast majority of the poems in the collection look at Abse's childhood in Cardiff, and his father and son play such a huge role. 'Reflections' is a particularly striking piece in this regard. There's adaptations of ancient welsh epics, and stories of childhood bullying because of his Jewish heritage.

My favourite poem by far is In The Theatre, undoubtedly the most macabre and fascinating in the book.