Originally published in 1939, this book examines the critical careers of a number of English poets. Bronowski looks at the reasons why English poets took an interest in criticism and how the role of poets as critics affected English criticism at large by taking Sidney, Dryden, Shelley, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Swinburne, Housman and Yeats as his examples. This book will be of value to anyone with an in English literature and literary criticism.

14 plays by major dramatists including Shaw, Sean O'Casey, Thorton Wilder, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Harold Pinter and Edward Albes.

In her introduction the author states the criteria governing her analysis and it is seen that these differ only in nuance from those that would be accepted by any critic. For in many ways Christian poetry is no different from other kinds of verse; if it is good, this is not because it is Christian but because it is fine poetry. In earlier times, poets wrote naturally from a background of unquestioned Christianity. Subsequently, the spirit of unrest entered into poetic expression so that its statement became more personal and less indebted to Christian dogma for its inspiration. Subject-matter diversified and thus poetry, in retaining the integrity it has to have it if is to be of its age, became less recognizably Christian. Today, the poet who is a practising Christian will be informed in his work by the spirit of Christianity, but he will not necessarily confine himself to expressions of faith or religious experience. It is in this sense that the author examines Christianity in English-language poetry.