All true poets are, of course, primarily concerned with artifact, the making of a verbal construct, a durable work of art. - Vernon Scannell

Of my childhood & youth the greater part of which had been spent in an atmosphere of cultural twilight.

Whether we are writing prose or verse we must never use language in a merely decorative way, every qualifying word, every adjective and adverb must be carefully inspected & weighed before it is used and ask before its use , is it really necessary.

The authentic British poetry of the second world war was not a poetry of protest, still less was it inspired by patriotic enthusiasm