ABSE, DANNIE

ABSE, DANNIE (1923– ), English poet. Abse was born in Cardiff. After four years in the Royal Air Force in World War II he qualified as a doctor. From 1947 to 1954 he edited and published the magazine Poetry and Poverty. Although his work included fiction and drama, he was primarily a poet. Abse has thought deeply about the Holocaust, and his challenge to God to explain Himself to man (in "The Abandoned") is in the Hebraic tradition. His verse collections include After Every Green Thing (1949); Walking Under Water (1952); Tenants of the House (1957); Poems. Golders Green (1962); Selected Poems (1963); and Small Desperation (1968). He wrote two novels, Ash on a Young Man's Sleeve (1954) and Some Corner of an English Field (1956); and two dramas, Fire in Heaven (1956) and Three Questor Plays (1967). Abse's White Coat; Purple Coat: Collected   Poems 1948–1988 appeared in 1991. He has also written two volumes of autobiography, published in 1974 and 2001. His brother LEO ABSE (1917– ) was a Labour member of the British Parliament for a Welsh seat from 1958 until 1997. He introduced bills liberalizing legislation governing homosexuality (1967) and divorce (1968). A solicitor, Leo Abse wrote "psychobiographies" of British politicians Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair. (Jon Silkin / William D. Rubinstein (2nd ed.)