C.Day Lewis

Let me first express my gratitude to the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge, for honouring me with their invitation to give the Clark Lectures, for their hospitality during my visits to Cambridge, and for their great kindness to a lecturer most uncomfortably aware of the formidable distinction of his predecessors in the lectureship

the friends at Cambridge and elsewhere

who, discussing the matter of these lectures with me, made valuable contributions to the book as it now stands;

whether it springs from mental indolence or is a subtle form of egotism

ordinary reader an introduction to some of its many aspects, and

perhaps contributed a few ideas to the major work of criticism which has yet to be written on it.

Did I write that? Yes, so I did. How odd!

every attempt

Is a wholly new start, and a different kind of failure

Not only that. The poet turned critic is faced with the novel danger of contradicting himself.

the poet enters a very curious country. At first it may seem familiar enough, a duplicate of the world he has left.