Question

In Dannie Abse's poem about the difficult patient, he writes in the last stanza: Later that night I must have slept on my arm: momentarily my right hand lost its cunning. In relation to the rest of the poem, what do you think this stanza means? Give a detailed response in which you refer to the poem.

Answer 1

Here the Jewish doctor Abse narrated a 'diffcult patient' ,who praises the architects of the German death-camps and and proclaims Welshmen to be "an inferior breed," without knowing that Abse, is a Jewish doctor.

In the last stanza, Abse describes how his "right hand lost its cunning. Abse , the Jewish doctor must treat a hateful Nazi patient and restrain himself from acting unprofessionally. The last line recalls Psalm 137, which warns, "If I forget thee O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning." Here the moral and ethical dilemma experienced by the doctor symbolically described.

This moral dilemma comes into play when Abse realises the power that he possesses over his patient, and that he has access to "deadly nightshade," and several other poisons that could easily kill him. However, Abse takes the moral high ground, and "prescribed for him as if he were my brother. But the last line about his unconscious violation as a Jewish's revenge to do harm against a Nazi. Eventhough ethically done justice to the patient the doctor have an uncoscious regret about that

The doctor here representing so many symbols also. Goering was a leader of the Nazi Party. He played a prominent role in organizing the Nazi police state in Germany and established concentration camps for the "corrective treatment" of individuals. Heinrich Himmler was one of the most powerful figures in the Third Reich, overseeing the creation and management of the vast Nazi police state as well as the infrastructure of the Holocaust.Sieg Heil isa Nazi salute, often accompanied by the raising of the right arm.All these processions induce unconscious revenge for a Jewish