There are of course many reasons to be grateful for Donald Davie's continuing presence, but after reading the most recent poems in his volume of collected poems from the years since 1970 [Collected Poems 1970–1983] … I decided that one of the reasons was that he rhymed. Rhyme, so conspicuously absent in the volumes considered here, is present in Davie's late poem "Artifex in Extremis," which begins with "Let him rehearse the gifts reserved for age / Much as the poet Eliot did" and goes on to explore the consciousness of a dying artist. This exploration is given strength and shape by its rhymes…. The new poems from The Battered Wife (1982) include, notably, the title poem, "Screech Owl," "Having No Ear," "Siloam," "Three Beyond," and "Two From Ireland," in the last of which the older poet looks back on his younger self, once a don at Trinity College, Dublin. Now, returning in 1977 to the country of the "troubles," he finds himself oddly charmed…. As always, to read this poet is to experience intelligence, control, and a quotient of obscurity; but … also a lyric of song. The title of one of these poems, "Having No Ear," is about listening to music. But Davie's ear is in his poetry. (pp. 340-42)
William H. Pritchard, "Aboard the Poetry Omnibus," in The Hudson Review, Vol. XXXVII, No. 2, Summer, 1984, pp. 327-42.∗
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