ABSTRACT
Mr Richard's theory of the relation between poetry and our beliefs about the world appears novel to some critics. Most modern schools of criticism assume that all poetry is qualitatively the same as the lines by Shelley; they assume this negatively, for the positive assumption is that poetry must of necessity be like science, a quantitative instrument for mastery of the world. This is the interesting theory of Mr I. A. Richards: because poetry is compacted of 'pseudo-statements' it cannot compete with 'certified scientific statements', and must be discredited as science moves on to fresh triumphs. The author set forth two propositions about poetry: poetry of the will and a poetry of genuine imagination. Poetry is a storehouse of ordered emotional energy that properly released might re-educate the public in the principles of the good life. Mr Richard's underlying assumption about poetry is, like Mr Edmund Wilson's, embedded in the humanitarian mentality of the age.
