Question

I Dr. Dannie Abse's Case History: "Sometimes it's very difficult to like some patients. Patients imagine that they're always likable, but in fact there are some ne has great difficulty with, I think. And indeed there was one patient that bugged me so sufficiently that I wrote two poems about him." M s, Most Welshmen are worthless, an inferior breed, doctor He did not know I was Welsh. Then he praised the architects of the German death-camps-- did not know I was a Jevw He called liberals, 'White blacks', and continued to invent curses. When I palpated his liver I felt the soft liver of Goering when I lifted my stethoscope heard the heartbeats of Himmler when I read his encephalograph I thought, 'Sieg heil, mein Fuhrer In the clinic's dispensary red berry of black bryony, cowbane, deadly nightshade, deathcap Yet I prescribed for him as if he were my broth Later that night I must have slept on my arm: momentarily my right hand lost its cunning.

Answer 1

This poem describes a situation in which Abse ,a Jewish doctor got a patient who exhibited Nazi like views. The patient praised architects of German death camps and describes Welshmen as inferior breed without realizing that the doctor is also a Welsh.  

Abse compares his patient to various Nazi figures like Goering, Himmler and Hitler. Doctor thinks that the patient should not be easily forgiven and could easily kill him as he has access to deadly night shade and other poisons. However,  his moral never allowed him to do that. Instead he prescribed for him as if the patient was his brother.

In the last stanza, Abse describes how his 'right hand lost its cunning". This quote mimics the Psalm from the Bible which states that" If i forget thee O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget my cunning'. This suggests that Abse is regretting and punishing himself ("I must have slept on my arm") for not taking stand against the patient.