D. M. Thomas Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Dick Davis

Critical Essay by Dick Davis

There is nothing underwritten about D. M. Thomas's new book of poems [Dreaming in Bronze]; many of them are vigorous monologues by the neurotic and obsessed. Mr Thomas is clearly a writer who takes it as axiomatic that obsession is artistically fruitful, and that extreme states of mind are in some way more real than sanity. (See his novel, The White Hotel.) Those who share these notions will enjoy most of the book; those who look to poetry as a means of providing a sane perspective on D(onald) M(ichael) Thomas 1935– © Nancy Cramptonlife will find less to attract them, though at least three of the poems, 'The Clearing', 'The Handkerchief or Ghost Tree' and 'Still Life', are worth their close attention. (p. 22)

Dick Davis, "Missed Worlds," in The Listener, Vol. 107, No. 2742, January 7, 1982, pp. 22-3.∗