ABSTRACT
In Alick West's analysis, Dr Richards discusses the effect of what he calls the 'stock response' on the appreciation of poetry: some word or theme wakens strong, firmly established views or emotions in the reader's mind. Dr Richards examines the word 'sentimental', and distinguishes three senses. 'A person may be said to be sentimental when his emotions are too easily stirred, too light on the trigger'. 'Sentimental' may also be used as equivalent to 'crude'. Finally, 'a response is sentimental when, either through the over-persistence of tendencies or through the interaction of sentiments, it is inappropriate to the situation that calls it forth'. Dr Richard's observation of this stock response of rejecting literature through fear of being sentimental raises a question of fundamental importance. His procedure resembles that of surrealism. Dr Richards attempts to end through poetry the characteristic difficulties of those held by the bourgeois tradition.
