Contents

    FOREWORD

   I. ON THE POET’S NATURE.

  II. NOTES ON THE NATURE OF POETRY

1. On Poetry of the Greatest Kind

2. Of the Great Poems from the Depths

3. Of Lyrical Poems and other Poems of a Small, but Perfect, Kind

4. Applicable to Modern Poetry

5. Applicable to Works of a Certain Kind

 III. NOTES ON TECHNICAL MATTERS

1. On Texture

2. On Technical Perfection

3. On the Essence of Sound

4. On Rhythm

5. On the Modern Use of Rhythm

6. On Form

7. On Harmony and Proportion

8. On Style

9. On Technical Experiments

10. Applicable to Free Verse

11. On Rhyme

12. On the Sonnet

 IV. ON A NECESSITY OF POETRY: THE CENTRE, THE CORE

  V. ON MORALITY IN POETRY

 VI. ON SIMPLICITY

VII. ON THE SENSES

VIII. ON OVER-CIVILISATION

 IX. THE NEED FOR THE REFRESHING OF THE LANGUAGE

  X. ON THE POET’S LABOUR

 XI. On IMAGERY IN POETRY

 XII. ON THE POET, THE NATURAL WORLD, AND INSPIRATION

 XIII. ON THE POWER OF WORDS

 XIV. OF THE DEATHS OF TWO POETS (SIDNEY AND SHELLEY)

  XV. OF BEN JONSON

 XVI. APPLICABLE TO THE AUGUSTANS

XVII. SOME NOTES ON ALEXANDER POPE

1. Of his Personal Character

2. Of the Perfection of Pope

3. Applicable to the Work of Pope

4. Of the Technical Side of Pope’s Work

5. Of the Heroic Couplet

6. Of Pope’s Sense of Texture

XVIII. A NOTE ON BYRON

 XIX. APPLICABLE TO BLAKE

  XX. APPLICABLE TO BAUDELAIRE

 XXI. APPLICABLE TO VERLAINE

XXII. A NOTE ON THE EARLIEST ENGLISH POETRY

XXIII. NOTES ON CHAUCER

 XXIV. NOTES ON CERTAIN POEMS BY DUNBAR, SKELTON, GOWER, AND A POEM BY AN ANONYMOUS POET

 XXV. NOTES ON HERRICK

XXVI. NOTES ON SMART, WITH A NOTE ON GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS

XXVII. NOTES ON WORDSWORTH

1. Applicable to Wordsworth

2. On Wordsworth

3. On Certain Flaws in this Great Poet

4. Of the Differences between Sorrow in the Poems of Wordsworth and Shelley

XXVIII. NOTES ON SHAKESPEARE

1. On Elisions in Shakespeare

2. A Note on Sonnet XIX

      EPILOGUE: TWO POEMS BY EDITH SITWELL

   (I) A Mother to her Dead Child

 (II) Green Song