On English Poetry : Being an Irregular Approach to the Psychology of This Art, from Evidence Mainly Subjective

On English Poetry by Robert Graves is a valuable book on writing and valuing poetry, as well as on the life and calling of a poet. According to this estimed scholar there are two meanings of Poetry as the poet himself has come to use the word:—first, Poetry, the unforeseen fusion in his mind of apparently contradictory emotional ideas; and second, Poetry, the more-or-less deliberate attempt, with the help of a rhythmic mesmerism, to impose an illusion of actual experience on the minds of others. In its first and peculiar sense it is the surprise that comes after thoughtlessly rubbing a mental Aladdin's lamp, and I would suggest that every poem worthy of the name has its central idea, its nucleus, formed by this spontaneous process.