Remembrance of Crimes Past: Poems

Abse ( White Coat, Purple Coat ), a British physician, writes thoughtfully about medicine, ethics and the art of poetry. Much of the work is inspired by themes from his Jewish heritage that are generally handled with irony and dark playfulness. The book's title is a reference to a longish poem about the speaker's childhood, describing how he escaped his piano lesson to join other boys in the park and the teacher was then ``dismissed.'' This small crime stands out against the background of Hitler's Europe: ``Later, only the landing light / under the bedroom door: / no hectoring voices, / no blameless man-sized scarecrow / being thumped down the carpeted stairs / with sovereign impunity / before Sleep's grisly fictions / and forgeries of the world.'' The stately tone, the clipped voice, the penchant for pun and paradox are typical of Abse's poetic style. This is not ground-breaking technique but it is articulate and carefully shaped. For the most part, the poet avoids sentimentality through a kind of professorial humor: ``True ancestors of mine, / those in hell, those in heaven, / they're not big wheels like roaring, war-loving Antara. . . .'' Occasionally the poet's persona seems contrived, as in a poem in which he describes himself playing the femurs of an infant ``like castanets'' when he feels the incapacity to express compassion. (Apr.)