In the Theatre

Introduction/Context

In the theater is a true story based on the notes of Abse's brother,a dresser to a well-known surgeon.it sets the action of the poem in Wales in 1938 In an operating theater,where the surgeon attempts to locate the brain tumor of a patient who was under local anesthesia. the patient low blood pressure and was lucky to receive anesthetic as usually,in those days a patient wouldn't receive anesthetic and finding the tumor was a "somewhat hit and miss" procedure that seems to have involved looking for it using just your fingers. A grotesque image, but all goes well until the patient, as a "ventriloquist" voice not his own, cries out, "Leave my soul alone, leave my soul alone!" The doctor withdraws from the brain, but the patient then dies, after which the mood in the operating room is shocked and speechless, as "silence matched the silence under snow."

Themes 

• disregard for human life  

Analyzing the text 

Language 

.this poem takes a rather graphic and sarcastic approach towards a very serious subject. examples of this is when in the first 2 lines of the 1st stanza,the nurse says one thing to reassure the patient but means something else. Also as the poem progress' the imagery becomes more graphic with regard to the operation eg

• the fingers of Lambert Rogers, rash as a blind man’s, inside his soft brain.
• more brain mashed because of the probe’s braille path;
• patient’s dummy lips moving to that refrain, the patient’s eyes too wide.

Key quotes 

"if items of horror can make a man laugh"- Abse is cynical as to why humans would find horrific things funny when they aren't.

"more brain mashed"- this is a very graphical image of the surgeon searching away in the brain.

"the cracked record in the brain,"- it is as if the brain now plays a cracked record due to the surgeons actions.

"that voice so arctic and that cry so odd had no where else to go." - this shows us his body is now cold and has nowhere else to hide so escapes through his mouth.

"the words began to blur and slow," - he is slowly dying, like a cracked record.

"to cease at last when something other died" - not just the record and the words have died, but now the patient.

"And the silence matched the silence under snow" - the events have left everyone silent, not just the patient, because he is dead

Use of Imagery 

"the growth still undiscovered, ticking its own wild time" - makes the tumor seem like a bomb

"patients dummy lips" - makes it seem as though the surgeon is a ventriloquist and the patient his puppet.

"antique gramophone"- this shows the voice sounds old now.

"silence under the snow" - it is lifeless underneath the snow which mirrors the atmosphere of the room

Structure 

The poem has 4 stanza's each containing 7 lines in them. The rhyme scheme is different with each stanza, this is because for each stanza the 1st and 4th line rhyme with each other, except the last stanza just repeats the the word on the last line. There are also some odd other rhymes  in the poem such as the 5th and 7th line in the first stanza, and the 6th and 7th line in the second stanza. 

It is a fairly solemn poem and is rather sarcastic as demonstrated by the nurses tone...however it ends rather sad with the repeated phrase "leave my soul alone".