[It] is slightly disconcerting to find on examining the Collected Poems, that [Abse] has decided to reject so many of [his poems] himself! If it is not too indelicate a phrase for a doctor, he has been commendably ruthless in his pruning—retaining only one poem from After Every Green Thing, four poems from Walking Under Water, and about two-thirds of Tenants of the House, his first three books, as well as revising some of the poems and changing a couple of titles.

As a critic, I would not wish to quarrel much about his selection, though I have reservations about one or two of his exclusions. For instance, I would be sorry to lose The Abandoned, since this poem, concerned as it is with religious doubts and uncertainties, tells us something about one of the major preoccupations important to Abse's development—he has always brought a religious...