Excerpt from Robert Elliott's PoemsThe answers may be none the less interesting despite the fact that the questions might never occur to the reader. They will show the extent of the author's responsibility and excuse him from faults of judgment in selection and shortcomings in revision for publication.No one holds the Opinion more firmly than did Robert Elliott that what the world needs - the English speaking world at least - is not so much more poetry as a closer study of, a wider acquaintance with, and a higher appreciation of the grand anthology which it already possesses. He did not take his pen to gain applause or otherwise advance his self-interest, he did not feel himself inspired with a message which he was constrained to deliver. He sought intellectual and spiritual improvement in poetical literature, and he learned how much the appreciation of good poetry - of a sonnet for example - is increased in trying to write it. His observant mind and sym pathetic heart occupied with the events and phen omena embraced by his own experience arrived at truths which he felt a pleasure in expressing in the lyrical form. He found that this mode of statement gave pleasure to others and hence with the genuine altruism characteristic of his nature he wrote poetry to please others when not merely to improve or please himself.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.