“This book is a plea for impure poetry, that is, for poetry conditioned by the poet's life and the world around him.”

His programme for a poetry answerable to ordinary life rather than to pure form · Preface, Modern Poetry: A Personal Essay (1938)

• Life
• Poetry
• Reality

“I would have a poet able-bodied, fond of talking, a reader of the newspapers, capable of pity and laughter, appreciative of women, involved in personal relationships, susceptible to physical impressions.”

His portrait of the poet as a man of the world, not a recluse · Essay, Modern Poetry: A Personal Essay (1938)

• Humour
• Life
• Poets

“The poet, I consider, is both critic and entertainer (and his criticism will cut no ice unless he entertains).”

Poetry must hold an audience if its judgement is to matter · Preface, Modern Poetry: A Personal Essay (1938)

• Criticism
• Pleasure
• Poetry