Scepticism and Poetry - An Essay on the Poetic Imagination

First published in 1937, in Scepticism and Poetry the author argues that a theory of poetry is primarily a theory of the imagination; that the imagination which is present in the making of poetry is present also in all our knowledge of the world; and that its operation in poetry cannot therefore be understood if considered apart from the activity of the imagination in knowledge. The book discusses themes like the ‘prime agent’; denial of the ‘prime agent’ and the consequences; imaginative use of language; imagination, lyric and morality; and poetry, dogma and the mystical. This is an interesting book for the students of literature and poetry.