INTRODUCTION

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The growth of the 'deeper mind' of a true poet is continuous and, except in tragic or cataclysmic events in his personal life, steady. This is the case because he is always a seeker of truth and always in pursuit of giving that truth not merely good but supreme expression, satisfying and pleasurable, making us indeed 'heirs'

Of truth and pure delight by heavenly lays.

However, the truth the poet is seeking is not primarily historic, or scientific, or philosophic, or religious truth, though he seeks all these, but it is the truth of experience -experiential-truth in that part of our being that is most alive and vital, that is actively engaged in adjusting the strictly personal with the totality of things; he is also seeking to render these adjustments, as he comes to them, in the phrase and literary form of finality, not to be changed or improved. He is therefore not a mere phenomenalist or dabbler, as so many seem to imply, nor is he a formalistic thinker with a closed system of thought. There is thus no standstill in him and no formal consistency; only there is the deeper consistency of constant growth, due to his unceasing efforts in adjusting the immediate personal experience with the universal, the ultimate truth 'general and operative'.

The true poet is largely subjective. Though he uses many devices to create the illusion of objectivity he really

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never renounces or denies the personal element; consciously or unconsciously he writes himself into his works. Take for example, one of the most objective writers in appearing-Walter Scott. Any one reading a large quantity of Scott's writings is impressed by the fact that nothing is more certain than that he is moving in Scott's world and not in some one else's. The objective characterizations and the medievalism are impressed upon us by the mind of Walter Scott-they are his medieval world. Thus the sources of his art lie within his own mind, and are in so far truly subjective. This is true of all poets because the poet's personality, integrating properly the materials of his craft, is the life-giving force of his art.

The genuine poet is also truly psychological; he observes the workings of the minds of his characters, and often subtly divines the impulses and motives that lie just beyond the scope of common observation, thereby giving us a new insight into the hidden world of men's mental life. He also observes the inner processes of his own mind, and with fidelity renders them in his poems; or, if he belongs to the type not strictly introspective he still, by his native endowment as poet and by his sincerity in his art, gives us unconsciously the finer workings of his own mind. The authentic poet is a great informal psychologist.

He is likewise informally philosophical; he looks before and after, has an outlook upon life; not relinquishing the personal he yet comprehends the impersonal; he deals with concrete things, yet by imaginative implication he includes the abstract; he uses simple images but freights them with profound and revealing truth; he penetrates through the particular to the universal; he