_Probably the most important contribution to modern poetical theory is
Mr. Robert Graves' book_ On English Poetry. _He grounds it upon Man as a
Neurotic Animal. Poetry is to the poet, he argues, what dreams are to
the ordinary man: a symbolical way, that is, of resolving those
complexes which deadlock of emotion has produced. If this book meets
with the success it deserves, it is probable that there will be a great
deal of psycho-analytical criticism afloat, that the symbolic test will
become the sole criterion of distinguishing the true from the fake poem;
until some sort of 'Metamorphic' school arise, who defeat this by
consciously faking their symbolism. I do not wish to oppose this thesis,
but only to suggest that though true, it is only a partial truth: and
that to make it the sole criterion of poetry would be damning: that as
well as being a neurotic animal, Man is a Communicative Animal, and a
Pattern-making Animal: that poetry cannot be traced simply to a sort of
automatic psycho-therapy, but that these and many other causes are
co-responsible. Indeed, though many of these poems may still prove poems
within the meaning of Mr. Graves' Act, I should be sorry that they
should be read with no other purpose than indecently to detect my
neuroses._
_R. H._
_North Wales, 1922_