General theories: The nature of poetry. The nature of criticism.--Particular studies; Froissart. Malory. Descartes. Swift. Vauvenargues. Tobias Smollett. Sterne. Hawthorne. Charloote and Emily Brontë. Bagehot. Coventry Patmore. Gerard Manley Hopkins. Henry James.
"First published in October MCMXXXVIII". Includes essays first published in the author's The sense of glory, 1929, Form in modern poetry, 1932, and In defense of Shelley. The remainder of the essays are either from his Reason and romanticism, 1926, or have not hitherto appeared in book form. cf. Acknowledgments.