ABSTRACT
Oxford, 1934, (a) pp. 6–13, (b) pp. 63–4
Cecil Day Lewis (1904–72), whose writing ranged from poetry to detective stories, was regarded in the thirties as one of the ‘Auden generation,’ sharing with them the ‘belief that a poem is first of all an event in society and only secondarily… a verbal creation’ (Julian Symons, The Thirties, quoted in W.H. Auden: The Critical Heritage, p. 13). His interest in Hopkins—and Communism (he was a party member)—is also shown in Left Review (see No. 96).
In the previous chapter of this book Lewis had described Hopkins as one of the founders of modern poetry.
